Stabilisation and Conflict Lessons Resource
Welcome to the Stabilisation and Conflict Lessons Resource (SCLR). This site provides an up to date collection of documents on stabilisation and conflict issues. It includes brief summaries of each document highlighting their context, major findings and implications in an easy to read format, plus links to the full text.
Please use the search tool below to find documents across a range of categories which may be of interest to you. To view the full list of documents you can also navigate through the site to the thematic and geographic pages.
Our Adviser in DRC on reconstruction, conflict and the Old Bailey Bridge
Work on the Old Bailey Bridge at Kisharo will go ahead, though when is an all together different question.
The bridge, which is on the road from Goma to the Ugandan border at Ishasha, was scheduled to be rehabilitated as part of the Stabilisation plan for the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As a Stabilisation Advisor seconded to MONUC, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I was involved in the project.
Key repairs were about to be made when the fighting broke out. A side-effect of this fighting was that the UN forces responsible for providing security for the development had to be relocated and the planned work on the bridge could not go ahead.
In fact there are three small wars going on at the moment - the resurgence of the LRA in the far North east; the re-appearance of the FRPI in Ituri District; and the continuing battles between the CNDP and the government forces to the north. There are also some 20 small Congolese armed groups scattered throughout the country and there remains about 6,000 FDLR soldiers in the two Kivu provinces - the remnants of the Rwandan army defeated by the troops of the current government in Rwanda.
These are uncertain times in DRC. In happier times, Eastern DRC was a holiday area for those who could afford it. Whether the international community will be able to help the Congolese move forward in the East remains to be seen. Some factors are in our favour - MONUC has a budget of over $1 Billion, the mission is supported by 17,000 armed peacekeepers, and the conflict is currently not country-wide.
Having been closely involved in the three years of peace negotiations, which led to today's elected government in Kinshasa, I remain hopeful that things can be turned around. And the Old Bailey Bridge will have its repairs sooner rather than later.
