Striving for civil, political, and peaceful communities in Africa.
Violent conflicts, extremisms, and political insecurity have caused the forceful displacement of millions of people in Africa and have hampered Africa's democratic and developmental potential. Civil and political rights of citizens continue to be undermined despite progress made by civil society. Those who criticize the government are arrested, tortured, killed, or simply jailed. Newspapers are closed and journalists killed. Political opponents are systematically harassed, and their supporters intimidated. The prospects of achieving democracy, human security, and human rights in Africa have declined in recent years and require special attention to protect civil liberties, fight insecurity, and promote dialogue for peace. Evidence suggests that rights violations, community clashes, and extremism in Africa, particularly in Nigeria and Cameroon, have become a norm undermining the citizen’s rights, their potential to thrive, and economic development. While these countries represent significant contrasts in national and cultural heritage, and current political conditions, together they exemplify many of the obstacles facing democratization, human rights, and security in Africa.
The DRIPS Project operates on the premise that there is a critical connection between peace, democracy, and sustainable development. DRIPS recognizes that the achievement of democracy and peace is intertwined with building robust institutions, fostering positive civil-security relations, and actively participating in dialogue initiatives. By addressing these key areas, the DRIPS aspires to create an environment where democratic rights are protected, conflicts are resolved through dialogue, and sustainable peace and security prevail for the benefit of citizens and economic development.
The DRIPS project is at its pilot phase covering Nigeria and Cameroon and focused on the following components:
Community Dialogue and Resilience Initiatives: Forced from home, facing a new normal, millions displaced by conflict and disaster struggle to adapt to communities far different from their original ones. Conflict affected communities have remained vulnerable, and have become breeding grounds for different forms of rights abuses. These communities often have one-off, band-aid solutions, used as tools for one or more stakeholders to pursue their own goals, or serve as a display of efforts without engaging the locals at all levels. In communities that are adversely affected by social division or a history of violent conflict, strengthening relationships, improving understanding, and building interpersonal trust are key objectives toward restoring peace and for human rights and democracy to thrive.
DRIPS ensures local communities drive their own destiny in tune with local realities, using local actors to address intractable issues that have plagued relations among communities. DRIPS uses community-based dialogue as a mechanism for meaningful engagement, and ensures participants and other stakeholders have an informed understanding of what dialogue is and how to design and carry out a dialogue process. An informed community, with structured platforms for participatory and transparent exchanges is instrumental for building resilience and self-confidence within communities.
Women, Peace, and Security (WPS):
Gender equality is a fundamental human right. Where gender equality is lacking, states and communities are almost twice as likely to be unstable and more than three times as likely to have a government that is autocratic and corrupt. Peace initiatives, meanwhile, are far more likely to endure when women—in all their diversity—are meaningfully involved. Women today face an increasingly fraught security environment, including their deliberate and ongoing exclusion from peace initiatives, rising violence against them, rollbacks of their rights and other challenges. DRIPS WPS brings to light the positive impacts of women’s full and meaningful participation in building peace and security as well as enhancing civil liberties.
As the world sees a rise in climate emergencies, cyber threats, growing anti-gender movements, economic insecurity, forced displacement, humanitarian crises and more, all of which disproportionately affect women and girls, the WPS leverages innovation and the resilience of women to unlock local women's voices and participation. DRIPS-WPS engages indigenous women, young women, ethnic-minority women, women with disabilities and two-spirit and gender-diverse people, whose collective leadership is essential to achieving sustainable peace and security as well as inclusive democracy for all.
Civic Engagement and Participation: As authoritarian developmentalism increases in the African continent, suppression of political aspirations of opposing ideas continues, a decline in civic engagement and participation abounds. with the growing dissatisfaction of the public on the overall governance, civic engagement and participation will continue to decline despite enlightened movements like the #EndSARS in 2020 in Nigeria. Civic engagement is a critical concept in civic and citizenship education in a number of different ways, particularly focused on social and civic learning within a rapidly changing global context. Civic engagement typically encompasses active participation in public life through developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make that a part of the lives of individuals and communities for the common good.
DRIPS ignites a virtuous cycle. Through active civic engagement, citizens become involved in governance. This fosters transparency, strengthens accountability, and ensures responsible public resource management. Ultimately, these factors contribute to effective policies, sustainable development, and a higher quality of life for citizens.Through education, empowering marginalized groups, and use of technology, DRIPS will engage communities and build resilience as a critical element of participatory governance. While the quality of governance is a key factor in reducing poverty, the building of more democratic and accountable systems of governance that promote the empowerment of poor and marginalized people is a critical strategy for poverty reduction.
The Atem Foundation Resource and Empowerment Center provides the conducive environment needed to train and empower local communities. The facility has a training room, a library and an ICT center to serve as a support system and provides the necessary resources for the accomplishment of the DRIPS Project.
