Women building relationships that support peace: the work of Pascaline Magendo, Hub Manager for Concordis in Paoua, Central African Republic.

For those working on the ground, peacebuilding can present numerous challenges. Preventing clashes, brokering conversations between authorities, and even just ensuring one’s own security can be difficult at times.

Concordis peacebuilders work to overcome these challenges by building meaningful relationships that foster trust and empower local people, so we can walk alongside them and together transform obstacles into opportunities for creating lasting peace.

The work of Pascaline Magendo, one of Concordis’ Hub Managers in the Central African Republic, is a great example of this approach.   

Pascaline is our Hub Manager, in the local office, in Paoua, not far from the border with Chad. Her experience, sensitivity, and strong spirit really help, but what motivates her is the trust people put into their engagement with Concordis. While the role of Hub Managers requires a lot of logistical coordination, Pascaline’s responsibilities extend beyond traditional office duties. For her, office work “only gains real meaning when combined with fieldwork, laying a solid foundation for results.”

By working daily alongside people who live where conflict is fought and felt, she is demonstrating Concordis’ commitment to long-term engagement on the ground. By being present, she is able to relate and listen to people from all parts of the community. Whether it is meeting with Advisory Groups, guiding community dialogues for conflict prevention, or advocating with authorities, the saying "Think globally, act locally," is the central motto of her strategy. For Pascaline, “Meeting someone in distress, listening, advising, and guiding them is worth so much.”   

This approach of long term presence in peacefully managing issues around seasonal cattle movement, means Concordis is credited by local authorities as experts in this field. It is one of the CAR government’s main objectives to make seasonal migration peaceful and profitable for all communities. Our teams manage a variety of activities and organise information sessions for herders. Pascaline says, “We also aid the construction of livestock parks to protect animals from theft and to ensure a steady meat supply to the community. Additionally, the taxes collected from each cattle sale contribute to public funds.” This is all done in collaboration with FACA (CAR army) soldiers and the local police, which, as Pascaline puts it, “give us the space to raise awareness during military meetings to combat illegal barriers and unauthorised taxes imposed on herders.”   

We work hard to ensure the participation of women in the peace processes. As an African woman herself, Pascaline brings opportunities to build relationships with the women in Paoua, a collaboration which has significant impact on peacebuilding efforts. It is key that women are in the process “My connection with the women in the community as an African woman is such an asset. We speak in our own “women’s language”, eat together, and share and resolve issues and strategies. It encourages them to engage further in peacebuilding.”

In the bush of Konkaya, during a vaccination campaign, herder women accompanied Pascaline to show her the safest and shortest route to the vaccination park, as she was alone with her motorbike. “According to them, no woman from my community had ever ventured into that bush to greet them. My visit, 15 kilometers deep into the bush, signalled a deep respect for their work.”   

These groups of women provide a strong support system for each other and enable change to happen. With her work, Pascaline empowers women as contributors to the peace process and enables their leadership to play vital roles in resolving conflicts. Receiving proper training in mediation and conflict resolution, has resulted in many women becoming Advisory Group members and, thus, local mediators.

“Training one woman as a peace actor means training her entire group, so she becomes a catalyst for change and peace.” 

For example, the Concordis team in Ndim and Beboura, facilitated peace between herders and farmers by supporting women in their project to build cassava drying areas. By not only coordinating and supervising the construction but also leading the dialogue with herders, women were able to prevent crop destruction. 

Yes, daily life is complicated by inaccessibility, security concerns and the poverty of the communities she works with. But Pascaline’s optimism survives, fuelled by the progress she witnesses every day. “What encourages me the most is seeing the smiles that our activities bring to the community, as well as finding people committed to success and who no longer just greet each other, but eat together, talk together, and move freely.”

These encounters give a glimpse of what she sees the future of CAR holding: a future of stability, where communities thrive together.