The thrust of this cluster is to strengthen existing violence prevention mechanisms as well as support the creation of new tools for combating violence both at national and community levels.
Activities in this cluster include:
- Research and Documentation:The aim is ignite debate at community level on violence prevention mechanisms and contribute on the essentials of a national healing framework. The final products will inform advocacy and lobbying initiative of CCSF that target policy makers at both national and community levels. The papers produced will facilitate the building of consensus amongst the Church and Civil Society on the various violence prevention mechanisms available, as well as gather views of communities on the institutional and legal arrangements needed for a credible national healing framework.
- Development and promotion of an Violence Early Warning Mechanism: Statistics show that the levels of politically motivated violence tends to increase during the pre and post election period as political parties increasingly resort to violent means to instil fear in communities to vote for their parties. The absence of a violence early warning mechanism that is broadly accepted by both the Church and Civil Society in Zimbabwe has made it difficult in the past to plan ahead strategic responses in the event of outbursts of violence in the country. The CCSF will adopt an early warning mechanism that will be used to prepare for such eventualities and develop contingency measure to deal with the humanitarian consequences of violence. It is envisaged that part of this mechanism address dissemination and sharing of information, with a central hub being created that will link identified information bases together.
- Dialogue with Policy makers: Dialogue between representatives of the Church and Civil Society and policy makers are created on the development of a credible national healing framework, institutional and legislative imperative for prevention of the recurrence of violence and for peaceful transfer of state power in future elections.
- International advocacy and lobbying: The project supports international lobbying and advocacy initiatives of the CCSF with the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as its primary target.
- Briefing meetings and press conferences of the Bishops Conference and other church bodies:The Church leadership have high moral authority and have in the past been able to influence politicians to respect the rights of citizens in times of conflict. Churches reach out to grassroots structures and communities making the Church a suitable entrance point for violence prevention initiatives. CCSF therefore supports the church to hold regular meetings as well as make public positions adopted by the Church that highlight their concerns and positions regarding ongoing human rights abuses and instances of violence.