Caritas India’s Samvaad Peace Building and Reconciliation cluster programme is in its second phase completing its one year in July 2022. This programme was rolled out in August 2021 in seven districts of western Uttar Pradesh with six partners holding a sound rapport in the community as well as with different stakeholders. All six partners are working towards the objective of establishing peace and harmony in their target areas so any occurrence that may lead to communal tensions is stifled. Caritas India has vowed to instil the message of communal harmony in all caste or ethnic groups in the region. It has envisioned a reality where all citizens shun violence to live with mutual peace and respect for greater prosperity.  On the completion of one eventful year by the programme partners of Samvaad, Caritas India held a review meeting with the objective of amassing learnings from the achievements and challenges to further improve the implementation of the programme in the future.

All six Dioceses Bareilly, Bijnor, Agra, Meerut, Jhansi and Lucknow responsible for implementing the Samvaad Peace Building, and Reconciliation programme were called for the annual review and orientation of the second phase. In two days all partners shared their key achievements of the last year under the programme. One such key learning included the constitution of citizen forums, peace clubs and CBOs to bring various stakeholders together on one platform to create synergy in the peace-building strategy. Besides this, the partners organised many activities in the communities including street plays to deliver the message of inter-faith harmony and impart crucial knowledge on WASH and educate people about threats of fake news. Caritas India’s peace-building programme aims to widen its net to accommodate stakeholders like interfaith leaders, panchayat heads and other government agencies. The objective of this programme is to engage all these stakeholders together so they convey the message of peace in their respective communities and shun all communal strife and tensions in places which have witnessed the loss of crucial life and property.

During the review meeting Assistant Executive Director, Fr. (Dr.) Jolly and all DSS directors launched the Annual Newsletter of the Samvaad Peace Building programme carrying the information on major initiatives of partners in the last year. The newsletter will be disseminated among the key stakeholders at district and block levels as well.

Program lead Babita addressed the participants commending their exemplary outcomes and contributing to the key deliverables of the programme. She pressed on the need of developing a strong network with the stakeholders and in the communities so that we can transfer the ownership of the peace-building agenda to them in the coming days for the sustainability of the programme. She further emphasized promoting activities and initiating innovative methods to sensitize different stakeholders as well to assert the apparent benefits and value of living in a communally peaceful society.

The initial session was addressed by Rev Fr. Jolly on the Accountability Framework of Caritas India where he addressed Diocesan directors and team to uphold accountability to the letter as we are in the journey of bringing transformation into the lives of communities through our efforts. In his session, he covered some of the essential aspects of Caritas India’s Accountability Framework which lies for both the partner as well as Caritas India.

He highlighted the Key Accountabilities at the Implementing Partner Level where he reflected on the important aspects of

1. Program Implementation Management
2. Implementing Partner Director’s Program Leadership.
3. Human Resource Management
4. Best Finance Practices 
5. Program Implementing Partner’s Performance Assessment.

Fr. Jolly also shared the Key Accountabilities at Caritas India Level throwing light on the following points.

1. Program Accompaniment/Facilitation
2. Partner Relationship & Communication
3. Regional level Coordination & Synergy

In another session programme lead Caritas India came up with the overview of the Log frame of Samvaad Programme where she reflected  on the multifaceted goals and objectives of the programmes  as:

• To create a harmonious environment of peaceful coexistence amidst the communities.
• To accelerate community-led social development in the village.
• To identify meaningful mainstream processes to strengthen peace and promote a culture of trust and integration.

The Programme Associate for Samvaad also shared the learnings and feedback based on the three months’ partners’ visit. He also shared the activity monitoring tool for the monthly reporting of Samvaad Peace programme where he covered the Log frame of the programme by enlightening all the three outcomes of the Samvaad Programme. He revealed the detailed implementation plan devised for the programme partners including

• – Log frame focusing on baseline numbers for the current phase by setting targets and milestones,
• Indicator Tracking Travel for measuring the progress of the programme with narrative reports and case studies and success stories.

He also shared the Key strategic pillars of Caritas India for reporting under the Samvaad Programme.

The finance associate explained the financial concerns and the aspects that partners are requested to take care of during the implementation of the programme. Other queries around payments, vendors and compliance of FCRA guidelines were also discussed in the session.

The closing of the second-day orientation was carried out by Fr. Jolly with his final remarks in which he applauded the partners and the Caritas India team for their efforts in implementing the peace program. Moving forward, Fr Jolly recommended initiating innovative methods that will help cement close ties and guarantee long-term inter-faith harmony. To ensure that Fr Jolly recommended partners think differently and move out of the confinements of their cluster of villages. He encouraged pre-emptive actions to curb polarization and address tensions, so things are de-escalated as immediately before they lead to any untoward incidents. A clean slate of no incidents recorded will be a testimony to the success of this programme.