For Briefing to UN Missions and Agencies
Proactive Presence and how it Works in the field (NP P & NPSL)
By Atif Hameed, Nonviolent Peaceforce Project Director (Philippines)
Greetings to the Organizers and participants.
I would like to highlight a few features of proactive presence and how it works in the field.
Proactive presence increases the levels of confidence and reduces the levels of fear among the communities who are living in conflict prone areas and it facilitates credible spaces in the ranks and files of different parties in the conflict areas to resolve the issues through dialogue and peaceful means.
Nonviolent Peaceforce through its non partisan and active nonviolent methodology further empowered the notion of Proactive Presence and incorporated new dimensions and meanings in the application and implementation of Proactive Presence approach.
Before setting up any field office, field teams comprised of local and international staff engage and take into confidence all the stakeholders involve in the conflict like, the key Government Offices dealing with the Peace process or Ceasefire mechanism structures, Armed Forces of the country, National Police, Provincial and Local Government Authorities; armed Groups – its leadership and key commanders on the ground, its bodies dealing with the Peace Process and Ceasefire Mechanism structure; National and Local level CSOs especially the one’s dealing with the Peace process and Human rights issues; International NGOs and International Organizations, Embassies; and, most importantly the Local communities and its grass roots level political, economic and religious leaderships. As a matter of policy, Civilian Peacekeepers fully observes the rules and regulation of the country where they work.
All this is pivotal to attain recognition, acceptance and legitimacy before deploying civilian peacekeepers on the ground along with the local staff. The above mentioned process is equally important to ensure the safety and security of field staff on the ground and to ensure the continuity of programmatic activities through Proactive Presence.
In close coordination with local partner organizations, Nonviolent Peaceforce establishes its field offices in such areas which are either prone to violence or having the history of violence and from where NP Peacekeepers have equal access to all the communities and different armed groups operating in the area.
Conscious/proactive International Presence by International Civilian Peacekeepers helps to bring more stability and security in the vicinity of field office. For Example, in one of the field sites, Civilian Peacekeepers helped to refine the structure of local Peace Committees which played central role to negotiate between the armed groups and managed to bring 16000 IDPs back to their villages who were displaced for almost 2 months.
The Proactive Presence of civilian peacekeepers along with national/local staff directly and indirectly contribute to break the culture of silence. Local communities and victims of violence feel more comfortable and confident to share their grievances with field teams because of their nonviolent and non partisan character . Recently, in some armed clashes in one of the areas, hundreds of families were about to be displaced but they decided to stay in their area when they saw Civilian Peacekeeprs and the continuous movement of Civilian Peacekeepers vehicle in their area.
Field teams because of their nonviolent and non partisan character have provided protective accompaniments to the IDPs, threatened persons and families, local Peace and Human Rights worker, Humanitarian NGOs and relief agencies in the conflict prone areas.
Field Teams along with local community based HR workers monitor the HR situation on the ground. NP teams link up HR workers with other national and international HR groups as well as connect them to all the key parties in the conflict. NP believes in addressing HR cases through Engagement and non confrontation, e.g., In on of the Field sites, Civilian Peacekeepers through Proactive Presence managed to release 26 underage children who were forcefully abducted by one of the armed groups. After negotiations, the armed group not only release the Children but also gave them bus fare to go back to their houses.
Through Proactive Presence, Civilian Peacekeepers support the local CSOs and Peace Networks to establish and consolidate Early Warning System and Early Response through Community intervention in close collaboration with Ceasefire structures and local authorities.
Civilian Peacekeepers presence along with local partners facilitates to identify, train, refine and consolidate the community based early warning and early response structure . In some of the field sites, Early Warning systems are fully supported by the Ceasefire Mechanism structure and it has been helpful to prevent the incidences of violence at the lowest level and rapidly respond to the crisis situation. Early Warning system also contributes to check and verify the Rumours which are one of the key causes of violence in conflict prone areas.
In the end, I would like to emphasize that there is a Greater need on the part of Donor Groups to focus more on protection issues and Civilian Peacekeeping. In Conflict areas, majority of the Donors prefer Development Project rather than projects which addresses the protection issues faced by the civilians. The people living in conflict areas categorically told us “We don’t want noodles and a sardine, what we want first is PROTECTION and SECURITY”. E.G . There are cases where the houses of the people have been burned more than 5 times. Such people told NP that “Security should come first and then development because development can never substitute security.
Through Proactive Presence, International Civilian Peacekeepers live and work in the communities which are vulnerable and exposed to violence. Civilian Peacekeeping is well accepted and efficient way of helping to maintain peace in critical areas and it supports the CSOs and Ceasefire bodies to strengthen structures and fortresses of Peace at the grass roots level.