The June 2020 virtual seminar held by the Auschwitz Institute’s Africa Programs Office (APO) for Zambian government officials, part of AIPG’s Jo Cox Memorial Grant which is funded with UK aid from the British people, resulted in the launch of the Zambian National Committee for the Prevention of Mass Atrocities and the adoption of a National Action Plan for the Prevention of Identity Based Violence. The online event also led to the production of valuable resources for atrocity prevention professionals. These three tools, like the seminar that inspired them, focus specifically on the risks, impacts, and prevention of identity-based violence (IBV) in Zambia.
The first resource, a case study, works to identify factors that have the potential to drive identity-based conflicts and violence with a view to finding opportunities and developing interventions to find redress in Zambia. The document is intended to inspire discussions among national-level policymakers that will lead to the creation of legal and policy frameworks for action to prevent future incidents of IBV.
Second, AIPG’s APO has produced a policy paper on IBV prevention in Zambia. This document, organized into seven distinct sections, covers a wide range of information. The paper begins by providing a brief overview of Zambia’s historical context and the concept of identity-based violence itself. The subsequent sections are devoted to the specific dynamics that appear in Zambian society that have the potential to drive further IBV. The latter half of the policy paper covers relevant legal frameworks, policy documents, and programs that the government has produced and adopted that are relevant to the prevention of IBV. The paper then concludes with a series of policy and practical recommendations made for the Government of Zambia, Zambian political parties, international development entities, and civil society.
Finally, the APO has developed an IBV Prevention Toolkit, which accompanies the policy paper and works as an interactive guide to facilitate prevention-centric training seminars, workshops, and other activities led by governmental, cultural, religious, and civil society organizations in order to further mainstream local IBV prevention. As such, the contents of the Toolkit are distributed across six distinct sections, each representing a programmatic session, with conceptual, methodological, and practical guidance for leaders and facilitators.