
COUNCILS OF NOTABLES AND LOCAL COUNCILS: CONFLICT RESOLUTION- CHALLENGES IN COLLABORATION
Workshops were held in 5 communes in the project area, specifically Ruhororo, Ngozi, Tangara, Gatara and Matongo, to exchange ideas and identify challenges facing the project's partner structures. A total of 261 participants, including 51 women, took part in these exchanges.
The Land Conflict Prevention and Resolution Project (PRCF) focuses on strengthening formal and informal conflict management structures at local level.
With this in mind, from March 21 to 30, 2023, workshops were organized for project partners in 5 communes of the action zone, specifically Ruhororo, Ngozi, Tangara, Gatara and Matongo, to exchange ideas and identify challenges that they actually face. A total of 261 participants, including 51 women, took part in these exchanges.
The workshops were attended by the offices of the local judiciary councils of notables, lacal chiefs, chiefs of zones and representatives from the communal administration (communal administrators and “CPAJS”), communal and judicial officials, and local land and community conflict management structures.
The main aims of this forum were to identify the capacity-building needs of notables' local councils, to discuss the terms of reference of notables' councils and local chiefs with a view to addressing the main challenges faced by notables' councils and local chiefs in their day-to-day collaboration, and to identify what needs to be done to ensure the smooth running of these structures in order to better serve their communities when conflicts arise.
During these workshops, the “PRCF” project's conflict management experts, who were also facilitators of the exchanges, focused on the fact that these elected representatives and community links must respect the provisions of the legal texts governing them, namely article 45 of law No. 1/04 of February 19, 2020 amending certain provisions of law No. 1/33 of November 28, 2014 on the organization of communal administration, and article 5 of law No. 1/03 of January 23, 2021 supplementing the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to the re-establishment of the council of local notables.
Challenges common to notables' councils in all communes.
In their interventions, they spoke of the need to strengthen their intellectual capacities, the lack of financial and material resources (offices or simply local courthouses, allowances, papers, registers, umbrellas, means of transport such as bicycles and others), to accomplish the tasks that has been assigned to them. Although some work on good terms, cases of interference and overlapping in the responsibilities of others have been reported for reasons of complexities, personality and honor.
AGREEING FOR THE WELL-BEING OF THE COMMUNITY.
After the discussions, participants were led to agree on what made the difference and the handicap before, to finally commit to a change in the way they work on a daily basis, and this in the interest of the population that often needs guidance and concrete answers to their questions, problems and social conflicts they submit to these bodies. This will enable them to harmonize the way they work, understand and serve, which in turn will undoubtedly consolidate social cohesion and the development of the communities in which they serve.
It should be pointed out that the communal administrators appreciated the idea of organizing these workshops, as they found that there were many misunderstandings between the two councils, mainly linked to their respective terms of reference.