Promoting Social Cohesion and Preventing Collective Violence

The purpose of the Promoting Social Cohesion and Preventing Collective Violence (PSCPCV) activity (hereinafter referred to as “Activity”) is to strengthen the resilience of communities in South Africa prone to collective violence. In particular, the Activity will focus on supporting social cohesion efforts that broaden willing cooperation across many types of social interactions. To achieve this purpose, the Activity will capture community demand for discourse and dispute resolution and channel it to support building the institutional capacity of vetted local structures in these communities. The Activity will orient those structures towards violence prevention and effective conflict management and mitigation. Noting the negative impact of conflict and the constant specter of violence in schools on educational achievements, the Activity will concurrently focus on creating “safe spaces” in schools that not only provide sanctuary for at-risk and vulnerable learners but will also offer opportunities for conflict management skills-building in the educational arena. The Activity will be accomplished through the following key objectives: Strengthening the ability of local structures to develop and maintain transparent, credible and peaceful conflict resolution mechanisms; Empowering communities to participate in and own conflict resolution mechanisms;Fostering organic opportunities to bring people together around areas of common concern;Working with schools in the community to develop “safe spaces” for learners to find reprieve from violence while inculcating them with conflict management skills; andIntegrating community healing platforms to address the individual and collective trauma crippling communities and contributing to violence. For the purposes of this activity, social cohesion will refer to “the positive nature of relationships between individuals, groups, and institutions within a shared space, community, or society” (Monson et al, 2012: 19). South African academics define “a minimally cohesive community to be the one which is able to deal with its [inevitable) conflicts [and tensions] in ways that do not result in violence, chronic tensions or extreme marginalization of certain sub-groups” (Ibid: 20: 12) The Activity will pursue these objectives in communities where there have been previous efforts at working with local structures to build social cohesion thereby strengthening community responses to violence overall.