Civic Education


 
 

PROGRAMMES

Civic Education Programme Activities
The CRD’s civic education program is conducted through rural and urban workshops, public meetings, community exchange programs and seminars where communities are educated and trained on the following 5 thematic areas;

IV. Peace building
Sustainable peace cannot be achieved in communities if there is no community development.CRD has realized over the years that the amalgamation of community developmental projects and peace building is key in achieving social transformation to bring about sustainable development.Comunity development in Zimbabwe since independence has seen considerable progress in education, health and sanitation but little has been done to reduce poverty in the communities. The development agenda by government and aid agencies have generally been in effective in transforming the institutions of violence to become agencies of peace and development. Interventions by these agencies of development have deliberately ignored the communities’ needs to participate positively in the exploitation and management of resources found in their areas. Political parties have worsened the situation by parcelling national resources selectively to their members at the expense of the majority in the communities and these disparities have stimulated sharp divisions, intolerance and hatred manifesting into physical violence especially during election period. The linking of peace building to development by CRD has seen the formation of Community based organizations(CBOs) in Manicaland Province whose primary objective include active participation in the management of natural resource in order to derive income which can then be channelled by these communities to develop diversified or alternative sources of livelihoods. John Paul lederach another peace fellow defines peace building as a multi-dimensional process of creating structures that transforms a society from a culture of violence, human rights violations and intolerance to a culture of peace, harmony and tolerance. Through training Community members in the CBOs and other Civil Society and Faith groups have become agencies of peace and their membership is set to grow. This programme has promoted relationship-driven development among stakeholders working with the communities such as rural district councils, government, CSOs, mining companies and CBOs.CRD believes in the strengthening of this relationship if sustainable peace is to be realised. To date CRD is working with CBOs in capacity building projects as a strategy of empowering communities to fight poverty and effectively manage their natural resources.CRD is also reaching out to mining companies extracting minerals in Zimbabwe through partnerships to adapt sustainable social corporate responsibilities’ programs that promote peaceful co-existence among different parties living in the communities. According to Zolack (2010), Community developers can aid peace building processes by helping to create participatory development projects. In this way, development becomes more sustainable, more conflict-sensitive.and enhances local capacities for peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 






 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© crdzim  2016