Democracy & Governance and Conflict  | | Afghani women elect members of local councils –
USAID is supporting local democracy in over 1,000
community development centers across the country.
Democracy provides a measure of peace and pros-
perity unparalleled by other forms of governance. | The Issues
Strong, democratic institutions are the surest way to prevent civil conflict. However, the current reality is that many of the world's democracies are new and remain extremely vulnerable to violent conflict. In many weak democracies, elites often use political, religious, or ethnic violence as a tool to mobilize a following and advance their own agenda.
The Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation (DCHA/CMM) works with democracy officers and Missions to adapt democracy and governance programs to conflict environments, focusing on the relationship between violence and key areas of democracy programming such as elections, political parties, local government, human rights, and security.
Our Work DCHA/CMM, in conjunction with the Office of Democracy and Governance (DCHA/DG), works specifically on issues surrounding elections, local government, human rights, and political processes. A publication human rights toolkit is forthcoming and it will explore the ways in which human rights abuses contribute to causing or escalating violent conflict, as well as how human rights programming can work to prevent or reduce violence.
In Ethiopia, DCHA/CMM supported programs to mitigate potential conflict in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples region (SNNPR) and address the immediate aftermath of the conflict with Eritrea in the Tigray and Afar regions. The overall goal of the SNNPR activity was to prevent conflict in a region where conditions of food insecurity and historical differences between the large number of ethnic communities made it particularly conflict-prone
DCHA/CMM also supported activities in Nigeria to strengthen the capacity of governmental and civil society groups to work directly on conflict issues through mediation, analysis, and early warning, as well as other activities to provide young people with constructive forms of political, economic, and social engagement
DCHA/CMM has provided technical assistance and funds to USAID/Nepal for a range of conflict activities, including support to the Nepal Transition to Peace (NTTP) Project, intended to increase Nepal’s capacity to plan, formulate policy, negotiate, improve communication with the public, and build the capacity of civil society networks to play a meaningful role in policy formulation and peace building efforts. In addition, DCHA/CMM has provided funds to the newly established Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal. OHCHR focuses on protection and prevention of abuses by reporting on specific cases and general trends. OHCHR also advises representatives of civil society and local human rights defenders on the promotion and protection of human rights
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