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1. Building Peace from the Grassroots with Informal Peace Infrastructures: Experience from Ojoo Community, Ibadan, Nigeria

Author:
Oseremen Felix Irene
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
One of the greatest resources for promoting peacebuilding and sustaining peace in the long term is always rooted in people and their culture. Bearing this in mind is a major step towards addressing domestic violence, intimate partner violence, disputes over land ownership and challenges associated with weak social cohesion that plague Ibadan, Nigeria. This study explores the contributions of informal peace committees (IPCs) as informal peace infrastructures (IPIs) in responding to the menace and powering peacebuilding from below in the local setting of Ojoo, Ibadan, where the study was conducted. The qualitative study adopts participatory action research design. It uses purposive sampling techniques and sourced primary data from individual interviews, focus group discussions, observation and diarising. Twenty respondents were interviewed and three focus group discussions were conducted for the study with a view to collecting primary data. Although IPIs also have their own weaknesses, the study revealed that local peace infrastructures, such as IPCs are resourceful and effective in addressing multiple threats, including domestic and intimate partner violence, disputes over land ownership, weak social cohesion and building peace from below. The study further revealed that IPCs can be sustainable if established through collaborative efforts in the affected community at a grassroots level with a sense of shared ownership, feelings of inclusiveness and project legitimacy.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Peacebuilding, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

2. Resource Mobilization in Palestinian Nonviolent Campaigns

Author:
Mahmoud Soliman
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC)
Abstract:
This monograph analyzes how Palestinian grassroots activists, popular resistance committees (PRCs), and popular resistance networks (PRNs) secured, managed, and used material and non-material resources to wage sustained and successful nonviolent campaigns in Area C of the occupied West Bank. A comprehensive analytical framework is developed to capture a variety of resources and to better understand the role that different types of resources have in the launching, conducting, and outcomes of a campaign. This framework is then used to analyze three nonviolent campaigns led by Palestinian communities living under occupation, highlighting how the Palestinian activists managed to secure, administer, and deploy a diverse range of material and non-material resources to support their campaigns. This study offers specific recommendations and lessons learned from the investigated cases for various actors—including activists, allies that want to support grassroots campaigns, and researchers interested in furthering the study of the role and impact of resources in nonviolent organizing and their successful acquisition by local organizers
Topic:
Territorial Disputes, Conflict, Activim, Grassroots Organizing, and Nation Building
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

3. The Feminist Revolution That Wasn't

Author:
Yoletty Bracho and Marisela Betancourt
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
Chavismo co-opted women’s rights rhetoric but failed to deliver on core feminist demands. For grassroots movements, abortion access remains a key struggle.
Topic:
Politics, Women, Feminism, Abortion, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
South America and Venezuela

4. Chavismo, Student Movements, and the Future of the Left

Author:
Fabrice Andreani and Damian Alifa
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
Partisan polarization wiped out autonomous stances within Venezuela’s universities for more than 15years. Rebuilding a pluralist Left from the grassroots is key to reclaiming combative struggles.
Topic:
Social Movement, Leftist Politics, Students, Polarization, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
South America and Venezuela

5. Remembering María Elena Moyano: 30 Years Later

Author:
Néstor David Pastor
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
Decades after her shocking murder, the Afro-Peruvian activist and organizer’s legacy for affirming life and collective dignity is more relevant than ever.
Topic:
Assassination, Activism, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
South America and Peru

6. Shifting the Field: Philanthropy’s role in strengthening child- and youth-led community rooted groups

Author:
Marcela Rueda Gomez
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to map current practices in philanthropic support for child and youth led work at the community level and provide strategic advice to donors on how to strengthen their funding modalities through participatory approaches. The recommendations from this process will pave the road for members to challenge their own practices; build on momentum to shift money down to the grassroots level; explore ways to influence the broader sector; and influence and shift the wider donor community thinking and approaches.
Topic:
Children, Youth, Philanthropy, Funding, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Building peace from the grassroots: Learning from women peacebuilders to advance the WPS agenda

Author:
Global Network of Women Peacebuilders
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)
Abstract:
To ensure that voices of local and national women peacebuilders are meaningfully included in the processes leading up to the 20th Anniversary of UNSCR 1325, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, in partnership with UN Women and the Government of Ireland, conducted a series of in-country consultations and follow-up interviews on WPS and Sustaining Peace with women from the civil society in Colombia, Northern Ireland, Uganda and South Africa.
Topic:
Peacekeeping, Women, Peace, Grassroots Organizing, and Gender
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Europe, South Africa, Colombia, South America, and Northern Ireland

8. ‘The Politic of Blood’: Political Repression in South Africa

Author:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Abstract:
In South Africa, grassroots activists talk of ‘the politic of blood’, referring to ongoing assassinations and other forms of repression. This dossier shows how grassroots activists and trade unionists have been subjected to ongoing repression by the state, beginning under apartheid and continuing under the rule of the African National Congress (ANC), much of which has never been fully acknowledged outside of activist circles.
Topic:
Repression, Political Participation, Activim, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

9. Movement-building for Accountability: Learning from Indonesian Women’s Organizing

Author:
Nani Zulminarni, Valerie Miller, Alexa Bradley, Angela Bailey, and Jonathan Fox
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
Abstract:
Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (Women-Headed Family Empowerment, known as PEKKA) is an Indonesian organization whose work is rooted in a vision of women’s collective power and participation for social change. Since 2001, PEKKA has addressed entrenched social exclusion through popular education, intensive leadership development, and social accountability and policy advocacy. Thousands of marginalized women have overcome stigma and entered the public sphere to engage in politically savvy, sustainable collective action. This emphasis on autonomous grassroots voice is grounded in 2,559 village-level cooperatives that are also scaled up to district, provincial and national levels (PEKKA 2017). PEKKA’s combination of national advocacy with grassroots organizing and countervailing power has influenced national social programs and broadened women’s access to the legal system. Improved access to the courts allows women to obtain legal documentation of their own civil status. This allows women to legalize a marriage that was valid under Islamic law or file a divorce case that will enable her to be recognized as the head of her family. The experience of gaining legal documents may build the knowledge and confidence required to obtain a birth certificate for their children, thereby securing opportunities and access to social services, including education, for the next generation. PEKKA engages in cross-sector alliance-building with local government, Islamic authorities, national policymakers, and international development agencies. This creates the political space and legitimacy needed to navigate complex cultural and political dynamics and deflect those forces opposed to public accountability and social inclusion. PEKKA’s grassroots members promote social accountability, monitoring access to services and solving problems through collaborative engagement with authorities—though without using those terms. What makes PEKKA’s approach to social accountability distinctive is its emphasis on building a broad, autonomous social base as the foundation for projecting grassroots women’s voices, combined with its multi-level approach to advocacy. PEKKA takes scale into account by engaging with authorities from the village level to national and international levels. PEKKA’s long-term efforts to build a broad-based organization with more than 31,447 members have brought fresh and reimagined language, analysis, and strategy ideas to the transparency, participation, and accountability (TPA) field. Key lessons from PEKKA’s accountability strategies include the following: Address underlying institutional and cultural causes of social exclusion to create the confidence and space needed for women to exercise their voices and take collective action. Use economic empowerment to build social foundations for autonomous voice and civic engagement. Build countervailing power through action strategies that scale up member voice, leadership skills, and opportunities for participation in all aspects of the work. Produce diverse forms of evidence for multiple audiences to advance advocacy strategies and maximize impact. Cultivate allies and relationships inside and outside government, and at multiple levels, to expand impact and deflect opposition.
Topic:
Social Movement, Women, Accountability, Community Organizing, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Southeast Asia

10. Dossier 11: The Homemade Politics of Abahlali baseMjondolo, South Africa’s Shack Dweller Movement

Author:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Abstract:
The shack-dwellers’ movement– Abahlali baseMjondolo, or AbM— is among the organizations of the world’s poor and dispossessed fighting for land reform and dignity. Despite waves of repression by the state, AbM membership now numbers over 50,000 in settlements across the country since their founding in 2006. In an interview with Tricontinental Institute, Zikode talks about the essence of AbM—what they are fighting for, who they are, what they have achieved, and what we can learn from them.
Topic:
Politics, Community, Mobilization, Land Reform, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa