Do No Harm Concept Preached To PCC Preachers
BY Fongang
Akweba
After over weeks of training to serve as Trainer in “Do No Harm,” thanks
to the PCC Peace Office, the
National Coordinator of the Cameroon Community Media Network CCMN Rosaline Akah
Obah, had the opportunity to share this content in a presentation for over an
hour last week.
The “Do No Harm” (DNH) is a concept used mostly by institutions
and organizations to minimize harm in situations of violent conflicts and support local capacities to
build peace. For example, how may aid be
provided to IDPs in ways that, rather than feeding into an exacerbating conflict, help
local people disengage from the violence that surrounds them and begin to
develop alternatives?
At the end of the training, the Preachers of Peace in Mezam Presbytery
were encouraged to go back and explain to
others the concept of “Do No Harm”, apply the “Do No Harm” tools in context
analysis, use the concept to assess the impact of humanitarian or development
assistance on conflict and use the framework to plan, monitor and evaluate
their programmes.
One very striking aspect of “Do No Harm” is that, “There are always
options.”In case a particular
decision reinforces a Divider (element that divides people) or undermines a
Connector (element that brings people together and offers local capacities for
peace), project workers need to look for alternative ways of achieving
their objective.Any option found to reduce a negative impact or to enhance a
positive one must be checked again in order to avoid unintended side-effects.
There are seven
lessons when exploiting the “Do No Harm” concept in a given context of
conflict: Assistance
becomes a part of the CONFLICT CONTEXT. It is not neutral, but becomes a part of
the context; there are two realities in any conflict situation- DIVIDERS AND
CONNECTORS. Dividers are those factors that people are fighting about or cause
tension .Connectors bring people together and/or tend to reduce tension; Assistance
has an IMPACT on both dividers and connectors.
It can increase or reduce dividers or increase or reduce connectors; RESOURCE TRANSFERS are one mechanism through which assistance produces impacts:what aid
agencies and organization bring in and how they distribute it; IMPLICIT ETHICAL MESSAGES are the other mechanism of impact:what is communicated by how
agencies and organizations work; The DETAILS of
assistance programmes matter: what, why, who, by whom,when, where.
In order to
understand the potential impact of a programme on a context of conflict, it is
important to be aware which conflict one is talking about.Who are the two
groups that are on the different sides of a conflict line, and how can we
describe the identities of the two sides? Remember not all conflicts are bad.
Different views may be an expression of a
healthy process of change that may lead to development.
However,
when we cannot accept different viewpoints, it can turn into destructive
violence between parties involved that may prevent progress. This is where DNH
comes in.
The great Peace
Crusaders of Mezam also embraced other insights on Peace and peace
Comments
Post a Comment