Burundi Evaluations
 | Mid-term (2 pager) – Tuyage “Let’s Talk” in Burundi – August 2022Tuyage project activities were remarkably effective in improving women’s economic outcomes and increasing access to media that promotes women’s inclusion and rights. Mixed findings on changes in women’s agency and discriminatory norms, however, point to the need to adapt project activities to address more deeply ingrained barriers to women’s rights and empowerment. |
| Mid-term evaluation – Tuyage – August 2022Tuyage project activities were remarkably effective in improving women’s economic outcomes and increasing access to media that promotes women’s inclusion and rights. Mixed findings on changes in women’s agency and discriminatory norms, however, point to the need to adapt project activities to address more deeply ingrained barriers to women’s rights and empowerment. Recommandations:
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| Final Evaluation – Tubiri Tuvurana Ubupfu – February 2022From September 2019 to February 2022, Search implemented, with support from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the program “Tubiri Tuvurana Ubupfu: Strengthening Trust and Positive Relations Between Youth and Police in Burundi.” The “Tubiri Tuvurana Ubupfu” project’s main aim was to strengthen trust and positive relationships between youth and police to prevent violence before, during and after the 2020 electoral cycle. To this effect, the project set out to transform the relationship between the two groups by encouraging constructive and humanizing interactions, and also with other members of the community. The project intended, in particular, to harness the potential of mixed security committees. The project came as a bridge that connected people with different perceptions and opinions. It positively shifted some patterns of collaboration between the target groups, which opened up a space for information sharing, in particular between youth and the mixed security committees on one side, and mixed security committees and the police on the other. The proportion of youth and police who can mention at least two incentive in engaging in dialogue to prevent violence significantly increase by the endline, by more than 30 percentage points. Community dialogues appear in particular to have helped some people to open their minds and change their behavior, with a significant increase in respondents who say they have discussed sensitive topics with the police in a safe space in the last 6 months (94% by the endline). The project presents several elements of sustainability, including youth champions, who are continuing to act as mediators within their communities, and a contribution to the institutionalization of community policing, as the police are currently considering integrating Common Ground Approach modules in their training program for police officers. |
| Final Evaluation – Supporting a New Generation of Women Leaders to Advance Peace and Security in Burundi – December 2021From December 2020 to November 2021, Search implemented, with support from the Federal Government of Germany, the program “Supporting a New Generation of Women Leaders to Advance Peace and Security in Burundi.” The project was designed to empower a new generation of women leaders in the peace consolidation process, both by ensuring that an intergenerational cohort of Burundian women have increased technical and financial capacity and confidence in their ability to participate in peacebuilding efforts, and by increasing overall community support for women’s participation. Through combined empowerment and outreach strategies, the project contributed to significantly increasing the visibility and the recognition of women’s role as key peacebuilding champions. 96% of respondents cited at least once women as actors contributing to conflict transformation, an improvement of 38 percentage points as compared to the baseline. This was accompanied by a perception of a decrease in conflicts in target communities. The project also contributed to an increase in community support for women’s participation. This was observed through an increase in the level of engagement of community members in women-led economic initiatives, including among men, and the transformation of some cultural practices. Finally, the project solidified women’s role as leaders in target communities – an additional 45% said they play a role as leaders and an additional 29% said their confidence had greatly increased by the end of the project, as compared to the baseline. |
| Midterm Evaluation – Tuyage – November 2020In July 2018, Search began the implementation of the USAID-funded project “Tuyage (“Let’s Talk”): Information Access and Economic Discourse Strengthening” in partnership with Freedom House and a diversity of local and national media and civil society organisations. Initially, the project was designed for 36 months with the overall goal of fostering an enriched information landscape and culture of open discussion on concerns that directly affect Burundians in their daily lives, with a focus on shared economics concerns and opportunities that will serve as a means of expanding civic engagement, increasing dialogue across divides, and building social cohesion. The midterm evaluation of the project finds an increasing coverage of youth’ and women’s economic concerns, as well as growing trust in and capacity of the media. However, it also shows that societal divisions related to class create challenges for networking between young people and economic actors, and cultural norms are hindering an information environment and culture of discussion. Women, in particular in rural areas, are marginalised in terms of access to information and economic empowerment. The perceptions of Tuyage participants paint a more positive picture, demonstrating the positive impact of the project’s activities to date. Although the midterm Applied Political Economy Analysis (APEA) shows a positive shift in the extent to and the way in which economic topics are covered as well as an increasing demand for economic news, there are still gaps in terms of quality reporting, trust between journalists and their sources, and cultural barriers for women journalists.
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| Final Evaluation – Support Women Leaders of Today and Tomorrow to Advance Peace in Burundi – October 2020From February 2018 to December 2019, Search for Common Ground implemented the project “Support Women Leaders of Today and Tomorrow to Advance Peace in Burundi”, financed by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF). The overall objective of this project was to “promote the role of women in peacebuilding and conflict transformation at the community level” and “increase the participation of young people in civic and social life.” The project was implemented in collaboration with Dushirehamwe, Association of Repatriated Women of Burundi (AFRABU), Association for the Promotion of Burundian Girls (APFB), Network of Youth in Action Organizations (REJA), Collective for the Promotion of Youth Associations (CPAJ), Association of Women Journalists of Burundi (AFJO), Jimbere Magazine, and the Iwacu newspaper. The evaluation found that the wide range of project activities (for instance leadership and peacebuilding training, coaching between adult and young women, round tables, media programmes) ensured that the perception of communities on the importance of the role of women in peacebuilding was positively transformed, the leadership of women in conflict transformation and reconciliation initiatives was increased and the credibility and effectiveness of women as actors in peacebuilding processes at the local level was improved. The evaluation recommended that emphasis should be placed on sensitising men, young people and women to better develop concepts of positive masculinity and complementarity between men and women for peace initiatives. Further, the (economic) empowerment of women and youth is key to guarantee the sustainability of peace initiatives and should be included in future programming. |
 | Duteramire Umutekano: rebuilding trust between youth and the police in Bujumbura Mairie, BurundiThe 2015 protests, violence and open political conflict in Burundi have pitted young people against the police, especially in the capital Bujumbura. To deescalate tensions Search implemented a 12-month project funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation, with the goal to rebuild trust among youth and police forces in key hotspots of Bujumbura Mairie. The project was effective in helping young people and the police to reduce the risk of conflict and better understand each other, providing new skills to resolve tensions in a non-violent way, and creating inclusive spaces for dialogue. As a result, participants reported trusting the other group, with concrete examples of improved collaboration between youth and police forces at the local level. This would have been unthinkable before. Given the fragility of the current context, and tensions that are mounting in the lead up to the May 2018 referendum and 2020 elections, the evaluation recommends to:
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