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.