Strengthening the Role and Capacities of Civil Society for Peacebuilding in Cameroon

Results achieved by Swisspeace in Cameroon at the end of the project (March 2025) include: (1) supported the participation of civil society in the peace process through 21 capacity building activities for 564 civil society actors (250 women 314 men and 121 youth). More than 90% of participants reported increased capacity to participate in a peace process. Religious leaders created over a dozen local peace committees recognized by local authorities and consulted for community-based conflict resolution and 174 trained facilitators are actively leading dialogues; (2) convened 20 structured dialogue processes with over 320 participants women’s and youth groups faith-based actors traditional authorities human rights defenders private sector representatives and diaspora members. These dialogues including the Improbable Youth Dialogue Women’s Dialogue interfaith collaborations and diaspora-local exchanges provided spaces for exchange across political linguistic and geographic fault lines; (3) supported 4 community-based humanitarian dialogue processes involving 120 participants addressing issues such as safe access to water points aid distribution and community tensions. In all communities local follow-up committees are formed to monitor agreed actions. 3 of them reported a noticeable reduction in localized tensions over resource access within 3 months of the dialogue; and (4) outreached new actors including municipal leaders members of the Special Status institutions and traditional authorities. This fostered 6 new local partnerships between civil society and formal institutions.