In 2020, the IPB theme plaid in-creasing attention to effective modalities for supporting community-led peacebuilding efforts, and to piloting different approaches to partnership in order to be more adaptive, flexible, effective, and partner-led. This attention related to the shifts in conflict dynamics at country and regional level, the impacts of COVID-19, as well as the increased maturation of the peacebuilding work of Oxfam and its partners.
Oxfam IBIS continued to support 23 partner organization across its peacebuilding profile and had a reach of 26,134 people peacebuilding projects directly engaged with. There has been significant progress regarding sup-port to peacebuilding initiatives with participation of women and youth, with 33 concrete initiatives in 2020 compared to 13 in 2019.
The number of countries supported under the Strategic Partnership with Danida grew in 2019 from five to nine countries, now including Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ghana, Niger, Mali, South Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen due to demand and interest from partners and country offices to strengthen their capacity on peacebuilding in the face of challenges related to violent conflict.
2019 saw the portfolio consolidate implementation of inclusive and bottom-up peacebuilding initiatives. Oxfam IBIS supported peacebuilding initiatives were driven forward in collaboration with 15 partners and networks. A total of 22,533 people participated in Oxfam IBIS supported peacebuilding initiatives, a number which by far exceeds the cumulative target for 2021. The high number is largely due to the establishment of community-led platforms and systems under different projects, for example the Community Conflict Monitors in Ghana which track and feed into a conflict early warning system in their region, which continuously engages a high number of people.
As Oxfam IBIS’ work on Inclusive Peacebuilding started up in January 2018, this was a foundational year and focused on establishing the structure, focus areas, and ways of working.
Under the Strategic Partnership with Danida, Oxfam IBIS commenced its work in 2018 at country level by supporting women, youth, and refugees in increasing their capacity to lead peacebuilding efforts and engage in peace negotiation processes. For example, as a result of the influencing work by the project partner South Sudan Civil Society Forum supported under the SP, the provisions in the revised Peace Agreement for South Sudan included a strengthened role for women in national governance and for women and youth in peacebuilding at local and national levels. Overall, with the support of our partners we worked with 687 people directly, of which 36% were women girls.