We came back with empty hands

This project represents a collaboration between Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI) and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), as well as six Congolese community-based partners: Appui à la Communication Interculturelle et à l’Autopromotion Rurale (ACIAR); Association des Jeunes pour le Développement Intégré-Kalundu (Ajedika); Caritas Bunia; Education et encadrement des traumatisés de Nyiragongo (ETN); Groupe d’Actions et d’Appui pour un Développement Endogène (GRAADE); Projet de réinsertion des enfants ex combattants et autres vulnerable—Hope in action (PREV-HIA). The goal of the work is to use lessons learned from past reintegration processes to improve future programming for former underage combatants and youth at-risk for joining armed groups. The community-based participatory research approach engaged partner communities and collaborating organizations in contributing fully to all aspects of the research process. This project was undertaken in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and the district of Ituri in Orientale Province. Local partner organizations worked alongside ECI and HHI to collaboratively undertake research that examined the experiences of former underage combatants and communities with conflict and reintegration processes.

This study triangulated information by applying a range of methods and speaking with multiple groups affected by the process of reintegrating former underage combatants. The research was conducted using an iterative approach, with visual methodologies informing the design of subsequent qualitative research. The design of this report mimics that structure by first presenting results of the visual work and then presenting the results of the focus groups. Service providers, community-based organizations (CBO), local leaders, families of former underage combatants and the combatants themselves all narrated their conflict and reintegration experiences. The project also incorporated reflections from practitioners and policymakers involved in reintegration programming on the strengths and limitations of DDR programming.

This report does not evaluate interventions of international and national humanitarian actors, as reintegration programming varied widely across time and geographical areas. Rather, this research documented the experiences and attitudes of former underage combatants in eastern DRC who went through the reintegration process, the families and communities who received them and the organizations that funded and implemented reintegration programming. The report proposes recommendations based on their collective experiences with the reintegration process and their perceptions of the current situation.