Strengthening Institutions for Peace and Development SIPED

Strengthening Institutions for Peace and Development (SIPED) in Ethiopia was a project initiated in October 2009 as a three year cost-extension of the 5-year Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) Project funded by USAID beginning in December 2004. CPR began its work in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regional State (SNNPRS), and extended its work to the Somali-Oromiya border areas in 2008.  In the SIPED phase, the geographic scope of the program expanded to include intra-regional work in Somali and Oromiya Regions, as well as the inter-regional work along the interstate boundaries of SNNPRS and Oromiya.   The design and approach of the program also changed significantly, building upon the learning from the CPR phase of the program.

With the wider goal of reducing tensions and creating an environment for sustainable peace, SIPED’s work was centered around four primary objectives:

1. Build effective and sustainable institutional capacity and collaborative partnerships to prevent, manage and respond to conflicts, and promote peace at local, regional, state and national levels
2. Improve understanding and application of conflict sensitive approaches and Do No Harm principles at the national, regional and local levels
3. Support initiatives that promote improved relationships and collaboration across regional state boundaries, to enable improved peace and equitable development in border areas.
4. Reduce local tensions and violence through support to initiatives which build peace and respond to conflict situations, and which address root causes of conflict through developmental and livelihood interventions.