Caritas India shared a new engagement strategy for its next phase of the Samvaad peace-building program. Partners from Meerut, Kotdwar, Jhansi, Bareilly, Agra, and Lucknow came together in New Delhi on February 7–8, 2023, under the Caritas India Samvaad program, to present their six months’ progress.

Head of Program, Ms. Babita Pinto, reflected on the programme’s key driving strategy to engage different stakeholders like citizen forums, peace clubs, and interfaith leaders. They discussed ways to accelerate the peace process through community-led peace campaigns, citizen forums, volunteer mobilisation and engagement, peer groups, and peace committees. She focused on the programme implementation trajectory to highlight the importance of collecting the strengths of different stakeholders like CBO groups, PRIs, and citizen forums to promote peace and also engage in micro plan preparation with panchayats for their involvement in the development process. She said that during the proposal development exercise for the upcoming phase, we need to introduce new ideas and innovations.

The Samvaad programme has developed a sense of understanding among the community and stakeholders to follow peace and accord for social integration, which will result in the development of society and the nation. Ms. Babita suggested working as per the detailed implementation plan to accomplish all activities within the timeline. The Samvaad peace-building program’s partners Meerut Seva Samaj, Karuna Social Service, Jhansi Seva Samaj, Bareilly Diocese Seva Samaj, Agra Diocese of Social Services, and Lucknow Diocese of Social Services shared the last six months’ accomplishments of the programme.

One of the significant activities conducted by the partners was observing days of importance like International Peace Day, Human Rights Day, and International Day of Persons with Disabilities and using this opportunity to share the message of peacebuilding and reconciliation. The street plays were also recognised as another key event to sensitise people to avoid communal strife and pursue reconciliation. Besides, partners were also engaged with citizen forums, CBOs, and peace clubs and networked with PRI so that a micro plan exercise could be done to raise development issues that are linked with community welfare.

Program Associate of Samvaad programme, Mr. Animesh William shared about the initiative of engaging a knowledge partner in the programme and how that added value in terms of conducting workshops and street plays for children and the community. Feedback was gathered from the partners on the engagement of knowledge partners and other quality enhancement initiatives.

Mr. Nishant Jose, the programme finance at Caritas India, updated the financial status of the programme and directed the team on the best financial practises to meet donor compliance. His sharing also covered the accountability and observation gained from the partner’s visit.

The team conducted a group exercise in which a detailed implementation plan for the next six months was prepared and all team members shared the action plan with the major interventions that will be implemented.

The next phase strategy was also shared by the programme associate, where the engagement with different stakeholders was discussed and taken into consideration. Clarity was given on how the peace clubs and citizen forums need to be strengthened through their engagement to promote peace and reconciliation in sensitive areas. Community peace-building engagement and integration activities like cultural observation and gathering were discussed to reach high volumes of interest. Likewise, a citizen forum and peace club engagement plan need to be prepared, where an annual curriculum for peace club children will be developed with specific actions. The use of social media platforms for disseminating positive narratives in the form of reels and jingles by the peace club children and interfaith leaders will be a powerful means to reach the audience, which will help in changing mindsets and developing a feeling of accordance among individuals. The citizen forums and interfaith leaders will be an important part of this strategy for the new engagement plan. The use of a mobile van, “SHANTI RATH,” for disseminating messages through printed and digital IEC like posters, handbills, audio and video clippings, and messages from interfaith leaders on peace promotion is also proposed. The mobile van will cover six districts with a total of more than fifteen hundred kilometers, reaching thousands of people.

Under IEC dissemination by knowledge partners, posters designed and printed by the Premasharay Foundation were launched in the review meeting by all diocesan directors.

Sessions on key strategic pillars CI, report writing, and basic photography were also taken by the partners’ team to improve the program’s reporting quality. Two days of review meetings concluded with the takeaways and feedback from the head of program, who focused on the essence of the Samvaad program, where the partners need to enhance dialogue within communities, children, households, men, women, community leaders, government machinery, different religious groups, the police force, the armed forces, school management, authorities, and health authorities. The impetus was also given to have a common curriculum for the citizen forum and peace clubs, a brochure and identification card for the forum and peace club members, a workshop of key peace club members for drafting the common charter and responsibilities, a micro plan with peace initiatives to be identified and evidenced, a revisiting of the understanding of Shanti Mitras, a classification of peace club and harmony club, a compendium of poems and slogans, case studies, an orientation on child protection and child safeguarding, as the programme is dealing with children, and a state-wide campaign or Yatra for spreading awareness.