Many nations are facing a dangerous, wide-spread infectious virus for the first time in recent memory and are scrambling to learn and respond from day to day. I recently talked with my colleague and CFP’s long-term organizational partner in Sierra Leone, John Caulker, Executive Director of Fambul Tok about lessons learned in Sierra Leone from the Ebola virus disease outbreak that took place in his country between 2014-2016 with 14,000 ….Keep reading this post >
The Government of Sierra Leone is pioneering a national policy framework that will put its people and communities in the center and at the helm of the country’s planning and development. (For more on the process of our partnership with them in its development, you can check out these posts.)
You can read and download the complete Draft Framework here.
Here is a brief overview and list of highlights of the Framework ….Keep reading this post >
How can government and funders support community healing and people-led planning and development? That was our focus at planning meetings at Ulster University in Belfast in mid-November. Senior government leaders from Sierra Leone gathered to focus on the planning and rollout of the flagship Wan Fambul National Framework for Local Governance and Rural Development, along with partner organizations (I was there representing Catalyst for Peace and John Caulker from our ….Keep reading this post >
Our thoughts are with Sierra Leoneans as they hold their national elections and await the outcome. You can read below the full statement to press that we issued yesterday together with our Sierra Leonean partner Fambul Tok, calling for peaceful elections and cohesive work to fulfill the nation’s promise after the elections. You can also listen here to the jingle we produced that is now airing across the Sierra Leone, ….Keep reading this post >
In the last week of March, Catalyst for Peace and our partner Fambul Tok moved further towards partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in Sierra Leone to help grow inclusive governance throughout Sierra Leone. Together with Ulster University, CFP, FT and the Ministry convened a gathering in N. Ireland to imagine and think through how to design and operationalize a national policy that would support a truly ….Keep reading this post >
The People’s Planning Process as Fambul Tok has developed it in Sierra Leone works from the village to the district level with extensive meetings, sensitization and the establishment of platforms that will be long-term mechanisms for organizing at the section, chiefdom and district levels. It involves representation of all stakeholder groups and is carried out in partnership with traditional leaders and local government. Throughout the process, Fambul Tok staff compile ….Keep reading this post >
“Sheku IS Fambul Tok,” said John Caulker (the ED of Fambul Tok) when we spoke after learning of the sudden passing last week of one of the founding leaders of Fambul Tok, our dear colleague, friend and brother, Sheku Koroma. And while John’s statement helps explain the depth of the shock and grief at Sheku’s loss, it also illuminates a core strength, promise and power of Fambul Tok, and indeed ….Keep reading this post >
Local people – and especially local women – are the real experts in keeping their communities Ebola-free. Fambul Tok’s “Peace Mothers” – local women who have been leading their communities in healing the wounds of Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war – have used their networks, skill and commitment to provide critical leadership in preventing the spread of Ebola. They show how working locally and over the long term helps create resilient ….Keep reading this post >
“We are saying deal with Ebola in a way that structures will be in place to handle post-Ebola discussions because experience or history has taught us that Ebola – there’s always a possibility that it will come again. So how do we put in place structures in the communities, in the districts, in the villages, to ensure that if Ebola comes again, we’ll have structures in place to deal with ….Keep reading this post >
In her article in the Building Peace Forum, CFP President Libby Hoffman shows how fostering community agency in peacebuilding as well as in national health crisis response (like the current Ebola crisis in West Africa) builds ‘social immunity’, leaving communities stronger for handling the next crisis:
Empowered, trusted local voices and leadership magnify the success of prevention efforts, and they do so while strengthening community capacity for the post-Ebola ….Keep reading this post >
