DRC NRC IRC 2022-2027: Resilience, Peace and Economic Recovery Programme

The program works in 12 communes in Nara and Segou to reduce the impact of conflicts, prevent conflicts related to resource management and promote sustainable development that respects the environment and is resilient to climate change. The program focuses on 3 areas: 1) strengthen communities resilience to conflicts, 2) strengthen economic resilience, food and nutrition security of communities and 3) strengthen resilience to climate change through improved management of resources. The integrated multi-sector approach included: economic recovery, water and sanitation, nutrition, information, counselling and legal action (ICLA) and peace consolidation. Protection, gender and climate are cross-cutting areas. The context is volatile in Nara and Segou, with violence between militant groups and FAMA and increased use of mines. Progress made so far included the creation of 22 Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLAs) mobilizing more than 500 women, market study on employment opportunities and a climate change vulnerability assessment, seed support to 8 women cooperatives, support for the establishment of 2 land commissions (COFO), trained mapping of conflicts and community mediation initiatives and protection monitoring in 60 villages. The program appears to have taken off very well, with some components moving ahead rapidly, and other components being dependent on limited human resources at a certain point in time, getting a slower start. Overall, the program has been performing very well. The format of a consortium between these three INGO:s appears to have worked out well.

The main objective of the 3RCs programme is to mitigate the effects of and prevent conflicts by strengthening the multidimensional resilience of communities facing conflict, poverty, environmental degradation & climate change. The programme has the following three main components and results areas contributing to the overall objective: Result 1: Strengthen communities resilience to conflict. Result 2: Strengthen economic resilience and improve food and nutrition security, including for internally displaced people, and Result 3: Strengthen resilience to climate change and improve management of natural resources. To achieve these results, DRC and partners, will implement a triple-action that takes a HDP nexus approach to build resilience of individuals and communities to multidimensional shocks in the short, medium and long-term through an integrated and multisectoral approach that 1) meets the basic needs of populations in order to reduce the impact of conflict, 2) prevents future conflicts linked to natural resource management and 3) promotes sustainable development respectful of the environment and resilient to climate change. The project will aim to strengthen community systems for conflict management/prevention, increase access to judicial services and civil documentation, increased access to land, increased access to natural resources and income-generating activities. The programme builds on DRCs, IRCs, and NRCs joint experiences with strengthening community resilience in Mali but also in the broader sub-region. More so, in combining the technical and operational expertise of the three organisations, the project will support: the prevention of conflicts around agricultural resources (DRC technical lead), more inclusive processes for management of natural resources through the rule of law, increased equitable access to income-generating activities (NRC technical lead), particularly for women and young people in the target areas and increased access to water and improved nutrition (IRC technical lead). The programme will have a strong integration of the three cross-cutting perspectives of environment and climate, protection and gender, to take into account the challenging context in which the programme will be implemented and increased risks of protection facing target populations. Strong integration of conflict sensitivity will be included throughout the duration of the project. The project will focus on 15 municipalities in the 2 regions of Nara and Segou regions. These locations have been selected due to either opportunities to prevent an escalation of conflict and/or large influx of displaced people. In Segou for example, the number of IDPs fleeing from large scale hostilities continue to increase. In Nara, at the proximity to the border with Mauretania, there are increased cross-border flows, especially of pastoralists seeking pastures for their cattle. To strengthen communities resilience to various shocks and prevent a further escalation of the conflicts in these regions, IRC will support 5 municipalities in the Nara region (Fallou, Njamana, Guire, Nara and Guenebe) and in the region of Segou, DRC will cover 5 municipalities (Niono, Siribala, Sebougou, Segou, Pelengana) and NRC 5 others (Markala, Cinzana, Sakoiba, Massala, Konodimini).In all the selected areas, the project will implement a standardized package of activities composed of activities related to prevention and management of conflict, food and nutrition security, information, counselling and legal affairs, water and sanitation and economic recovery. The programmes target the poorest and most vulnerable rural population and will reach at least 32, 580 people (20, 851 women, including 2632 girls and 11,729 men, including 1709 boys).