Re-envisioning Security and Rule of Law Responses in the Great Lakes Region in East Africa; Local partnerships as Pathways to Improved Programming (KMF Event Grant CR3035_1.1) (19,450 Euros)

The Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael” is in charge of executing the contract of the Secretariat of the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law ,in cooperation with Safeworld (UK) and the International Development Law Organisation. The Centre for African Research based in Gulu, Northern Uganda, in partnership with the Catholic University of Bukavu, conducted a virtual workshop for leaders from selected communities in Northern Uganda; Juba, South Sudan; and Bukavu , in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The workshop brought together over 15 community leaders to engender a rebalancing of local agency into the asymmetric power and relationships in security, the rule of law, and partnerships in these communities.

The regional workshop was particularly important because, unlike the rest of the world, these communities have not only had to respond to Covid-19 related crises but have gained experience over the years handling other public pandemics, including Ebola outbreaks in the context of insecurity. The workshop was a move at strengthening collaborations between local and regional actors and potentially provide new evidence to inform a paradigm shift in programming for pandemics, particularly in areas affected by insecurity and break down in the rule of law. The formation of a Southern-based network on whose experience local, national, and international actors can leverage their responses to pandemics will be a key outcome.