USAID/OTI DROC Fact Sheet
January 2005
OBJECTIVE
The Transition Awareness and Participation (TAP) program reinforces local, provincial, and national awareness to foster community participation on issues key to the transition through the following:
- Information campaigns focusing on disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR); elections; transitional institutions; and laws critical to the advancement of the transition (i.e. amnesty and nationality laws);
- Quick Response activities (i.e. radio listening groups, community town hall meetings) that use information to address political crisis.
RATIONALE
After five years of war, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) started its transition with the creation of a unified government on June 30, 2003. However, on-going conflicts in the East combined with misinformation and limited access to balanced reporting on the advancements of the transitional institutions, have weakened confidence in the political process. If populations do not see the individual/community benefits of the transition, they will seek their own solutions to problem, which often times turn violent. A disenchanted population also makes an easy target for manipulation by parties more interested in advancing personal, financial, and resource goals then advancing the political process. Additionally, populations not well informed about key transitional issues such as elections and DDR, and the role that they can play within this process will be incapable of effective participation, which could further inhibit the advancement of the transition. TAP provides credible information to citizens that further encourages their participation in and manages their expectations of the transition.
METHODS
1. Targeted Information Campaigns
Information Campaigns will focus on the critical transition issues of DDR, elections, transitional institutions, and relevant laws. Campaigns will be targeted locally in Province Oriental and northern Maniema, corresponding to where OTI’s community focused reintegration program know as Synergie d’Education Communautaire et Appui á la transition or (SE*CA) programs takes place. Due to the historic socio-economic linkages between these areas, provincial campaigns will disseminate political transition material relevant across the region. Nationally, broader themes on the selected transition issues will be disseminated utilizing existing information diffusion networks, such as Radio Okapi and community radio, national radio and television, internet, civil society, and cell phone networks.
Partners:
- Fondation Hirondelle supports (in collaboration with MONUC) Radio Okapi and five community radio partnerships;
- Chemonics funds remaining activities through small grants.
2. Quick Response Activities
These activities will target and address crisis triggers (i.e. youth protests) that are expected to arise during the transition process. This approach allows for the flexibility needed to respond to the fluctuating political situation. Quick response activities could be used to address any political crisis for which information dissemination could play a vital role in the resolution of the crisis. Interventions would target populations on a national, regional and/or local level.
Partner:
- Chemonics funds remaining activities through small grants.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C.: Bronwyn Bruton, OTI Program Manager, e-mail: bbruton@usaid.gov; telephone: (202) 712-0827
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