USAID in Africa>Success Stories: Agricultural Collectives Reintegrate Communities

North of Kisangani toward Buta town, in Orientale Province, two communities, only 18 kilometers apart, lead very different lives. One community lives too far from a diamond mine for its residents to provide for their families by working in the mines, while the other community focuses on mining only. The first community has developed agricultural skills, instrumental for its survival, while the second community has been digging diamonds for decades, gradually losing its touch for farming. The two communities never interacted because they never had a reason to, nor did they have anything in common.

Both communities were included in an agricultural-collective initiative that provided training in farming and income generation, followed by distribution of seeds and tool kits. This is one of the activities of USAID's Synergie d'Education Communautaire et d'Appui (SE*CA) program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that is helping with reconciliation and community reintegration of ex-combatants and idle youths after years of conflict in the region.

After participating in training and seeing the first plants produce much higher yields on even small plots of land in the first community, the diamond miners approached the farmers to share technical knowledge between the two communities. This community exchange created an atmosphere of mutual support, laying the foundation for reduced conflict. The two communities are now successfully growing maize and rice, and are serving as role models for other communities that are following their lead. This specific activity reaches over 150,000 people in this region alone. The SE*CA program has established over 100 of these agricultural collectives in Orientale and Maniema Provinces, with similar results.

SE*CA, or Synergie d'Education Communautaire et Appui a la Transition (pronounced "C'est ça!"), is implemented by USAID/OTI through its partner Chemonics. The SE*CA program promotes improved stability in war-affected areas by facilitating the reintegration of war-affected youths into their communities and increasing local, regional and national understanding of issues that are key to the country's political transition. To support these objectives, SE*CA uses three tools: a youth education and skills program to train war-affected youths in agriculture, civic education, health, conflict management, reconciliation, personal values, numeracy, and literacy; a media program that supports access to information concerning issues key to the transition; and an in-kind small-grants program that supports information dissemination projects and community-identified activities that are a priority for the economic, political, and/or social revitalization of the community.