Peer Review Meeting within Conflict-affected Communities to Strengthen Peace & Social Cohesion.

The PPCA aims to bring together divided and marginalized communities creating the imperative to continuously assess and address worsening relations in the PPCA implementation communities, and across the ethnic groups of interest. Some stereotypes endure and must be addressed to have the potential for a positive impact. The Peer Review Meeting was designed to capture perceptions from women and Men groups, aiming to enable a more nuanced understanding of the social cohesion dynamics presenting themselves in Fiidi Community in Makurdi LGA. The meeting commenced with an introductory open discussion on social cohesion aimed at ascertaining whether participants were familiar with the concept.

CLHEI conducted a gender- disaggregated Focus-group discussion where participants were divided into two groups of Men and Women exploring three (3) core themes comprising: Conflict Drivers, Peace Relations, and Peace Connectors.  The FGDs gathered 30 participants in total in order to remain manageable but reflect an appropriate amount of diversity or variation as exists in the population of interest. Given the sensitivity of the discussion topic, the separate FGDs were administered using specially designed FGD guides with staff positioned to take notes of the exchanges.

Through these engagements, CLHEI now have A Clear Understanding of the Social Cohesion Context in Fiidi. The findings paint a context but also uncovered some valuable resources, capacities and desire for peace among the population. However, participants are confident in their own capacity to bring change. This optimistic outlook points to a high level of resiliency and resolve. Below are Community-Proposed Plan to reducing stereotypes and building Social Cohesion:

• Joint Social, Economic and cultural activities
• Reducing socioeconomic inequalities
• Providing Livelihood enhancing opportunities
• Conducting regular Town hall engagements for community dialogues
• Capacity strengthening on dispute resolution and conflict management for community & opinion leaders