Since early 2017, political tensions in Guinea, a country in West-Africa, are spreading as supporters of the ruling coalition started to demand for a third term of office for the incumbent President, Alpha Conde. Tensions reached a peak while rumours started to emerge that a draft revision of the constitution was in the making. In the last three months, opposition leaders and civil society organizations united into an anti-revision platform. The protestors organized a series of public protests, some of them resulting in violent clashed with security forces.

The insider mediators

The insider mediators – called the ‘Groupe National de Contact pour le Dialogue et la Paix’ - could play an important role in election related conflict prevention and resolution. Its members were nominated through a long, consultative process where Guinea’s three parliamentary groups were involved. Amongst them are university professors, lawyers and former government ministers.

Clingendael conducted a second training to these high-level insider mediators in Guinea Conakry.

Key lessons of Training Project

This Clingendael training project supported the group in their challenging task. Key lessons discussed during the training included:

• Balancing the need for action and visibility versus taking time to prepare and being patient to find the right entry points
• Linkage and cross-pollination between national, regional and local level dialogues
• Building (internal cohesion on) a common mediation strategy
• Identifying strategies for mediators to gain legitimacy, enhance trust and find creative entry points to the main stakeholders

This training project is implemented by Clingendael Academy, supported and financed by the Peacebuilding Fund and UNDP Guinea.

Clingendael Academy

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