| Local advocacy to influence international policy
The communities affected by poverty and conflict in eastern DRC
have had little input into the design of international strategies
aimed at them. We work with our partners to connect
the experiences of Congolese people with international and national
policy processes – in order to make these strategies more
conducive to peace and development.
Resource exploitation and the links
to conflict dynamics
We have worked with the Pole Institute, a well-respected research institute based in Goma, North Kivu,to develop advocacy strategies around a number of issues, the first being the exploitation of resources and its link to livelihoods and conflict dynamics. The DRC has significant proportions of the world’s mineral reserves in its subsoil, vast tracts of fertile land and rainforest. If a greater proportion of the income from these resources were to be retained within the country, and there were more equitable distribution of this income at the local level, then there would be an increase in local human security and improved prospects for peace and stability. How to effect this change would require the perspectives and input of Congolese at the local level.
In March 2004 we convened a seminar in Brussels on ‘Resource Exploitation and Human Security in the DRC’, producing a briefing paper incorporating seminar proceedings, conclusions and an overview of policy actors.
EU policy in the Great Lakes Region
Today, Alert’s programme in the DRC collaborates closely with other strands of work on various peacebuilding issues to develop policy recommendations for the European Union and other international institutions. In September 2006, we published a report exploring the EU’s options for supporting security, governance and economic recovery in post-transition DRC. This report is also available in French.
Links
For more information, contact
Sylvie Pereira
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Last updated: November 2006 |
