Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development

The GPS Unit has been implementing Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD) activities through the Trading for Peace (TfP) Project. The Project was initiated in 2007 following a Decision of the Seventh Meeting of the COMESA Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Djibouti in November 2006. The Project’s overall objective is geared towards supporting post-conflict reconstruction, development, and peacebuilding at the cross-border areas of Democratic Republic of Congo and its eastern neighbours (Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda) and Zambia in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. In achieving this objective, the Trading for Peace Project utilises trade as a mechanism for peacebuilding and compliments the AU PCRD policy.

The PCRD activities have further sought to improve post-conflict communities’ livelihoods by enhancing their socio-economic conditions and promoting human rights, justice and reconciliation through sensitisation and targeted capacity-building activities such as skills training in conflict prevention and resolution, and entrepreneurship. In addition, the Project has been rehabilitating post-conflict cross-border infrastructure projects including markets, roads, and bridges, amongst others at selected border areas.

The GPS Unit supported the establishment 16 Trade Information Desks (TIDs) at the border posts of DRC and its eastern neighbours including Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Zambia. The TIDs are equipped with IT infrastructure including computers, printers, scanners and fitted with solar panels. The TID Managers collect data and provide vital trade information to small scale traders and other stakeholders. In addition, the TIDs have also been capacitated through training to resolve disputes at the border areas involving border communities and border officials. As a result, there has been an increase in cross-border trade as well as a marked improvement in relations between cross-border communities.

The Programme has also led to the establishing of formalised networks comprised of small-scale cross-border traders, border officials, and other key stakeholders and conducted capacity-strengthening through training to enhance their skills in conflict prevention and resolution, and entrepreneurship. The formalised networks established in the border areas are Joint Border Committees with adopted modalities of engagement including composition of key stakeholders such as Immigration, Revenue Authority, Border Police, Cross-Border Traders Associations (CBTAs) and Civil Society, among others.