May 9, 2019 – Early last month, Magdalena – a youth peacemaker from the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) – successfully completed a community dialogue that sought to reconcile the Didinga and Logir clans in South Sudan’s Kidepo Valley county. The two had long been engaged in what was once thought to be an intractable conflict. However, over several weeks of dialogue brokered by WPDI in March and April, they agreed to end hostilities and live together in peace.
Community dialogues are at the core of our work, as they are designed to build peace, resolve conflicts, and inform communities about important public issues, such as ones related to healthcare or education and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our youth peacemakers – colloquially referred to as Trainers of Trainees or ToTs – lead these sessions, drawing both on their expertise and their understanding of their communities. This is at the core of our Youth Peacemaker Network program. Through that initiative – WPDI’s flagship program – in which we enroll young people from fragile communities and intensively train them over the course of one year in topics including peacebuilding, conflict resolution, negotiation, life skills, information and communications technology, and business and entrepreneurship. When they successfully complete their training and become certified as WDPI peacemakers, those young people become “transformative insiders” with the mission to impart sustainable change within their communities.
Without question, this is key when it comes to organizing community dialogues. The recent one in Kidepo Valley county between the Didinga and Logir clans is an exemplification of this. The two had long been ensnared in violence against each other, ranging from cattle raiding to reprisal killings to a refusal to share mutually-beneficial resources. After seeing many external organizations attempt to mediate between the two clans, local authorities requested that a WPDI ToT, Magdalena, intervene as she is both local to the area and well-known for her expertise. For weeks, she gathered, with the support of WPDI staff, dozens of members of the Didinga and Logir to discuss the underlying motivations of the conflict as well as mutual needs. They found that both sides were actually concerned about similar issues, such as education, competition over resources, and each also wanted an end to the violence. After building up trust through a mediation process, Magdalena held a peace dialogue between the Didinga and Logir, where leaders and youths from the two clans were able to openly discuss and resolve longstanding issues. They agreed to an immediate cessation of violence, to share resources such as water and grazing spots equally, and to even participate in joint socio-economic activities such as maintaining a mutually-used road.
In the coming weeks and months, WPDI will continue to monitor the peace agreement between the Didinga and Logir clans as our ToTs will continue to hold dozens of community dialogues in places like South Sudan, Uganda, and Mexico. We are proud of all of our youth peacemakers and their accomplishments