TFV

NECPA combines agricultural support (sorghum, cassava and chili seeds and farm tools) with collective and individual counseling, and has organized participating victims into 108 cooperatives. As their work highlights, people in transitional societies have a complex set of needs that depend on both development and transitional justice initiatives.

Despite their inter-dependence, transitional justice and development rarely meet in practice. The TFV supports programming that attempts to bridge this divide. Transitional justice efforts that recognize people both as victims and rights-bearers, and that foster trust can promote the social cohesion and integration on which development depends. Development efforts, in turn, can redress the material and physical harm that victims have suffered and ameliorate the resource struggles that often underlie armed struggle.

NECPA’s farmer cooperatives promote the trust and cohesion for affected communities on which successful development initiatives depend. After harvest, the chili crops will be dried and readied for sale on both domestic and foreign markets. Chilies can fetch significantly more per acre than traditional cash crops from the region like palm and other domestic staples. The cooperatives (both men and women) work together off the field, gathering regularly to set priorities, discuss challenges and promote the rights of victims in their communities. NECPA director Hellen Acham is an internationally known advocate for victims’ rights in Uganda and works with her beneficiaries to empower them economically, socially and politically.