'Hardware' vs 'software' needs: Prioritize 'software' needs for youths in post-conflict areas

Apr 15, 2020

The issues which seem to be relatively ignored by all relevant authorities has been the ‘software’ needs of the population who had lost hope because of the nearly three decades of war.

By Nono Francis

Over the last couple of days, the social and mainstream media was awash with rather disturbing news coming from northern Uganda amidst the fight to contain COVID-19. 

These reports pointed to a fiasco between community members in Amuru who had attacked security personnel attached to the Resident District Commissioner's office.

It was later confirmed that the security personnel lost an eye in the fracas.

Another news story emerged almost immediately, that showed a video of a man in his late 20s or early 30s attacking his grandmother.

These events have prompted an emotional response in the community, specifically the video of the old woman being beaten by the grandson.

The response has called for the man to ‘face the full extent of the law'. While this might be deserved, it does not address, as one Gulu based blogger described, the ‘software' and instead' we shall be treating the symptom rather than the root cause of these societal problems in post-war northern Uganda

There has been relative peace in northern Uganda for almost 14 years after the Juba Peace Process. The legacy of the war and the traumatizing events have had a big impact on the community, and community members still face a big challenge about how to rebuilding themselves, their communities and enduring peace.

The issues which seem to be relatively ignored by all relevant authorities has been the ‘software' needs of the population who had lost hope because of the nearly three decades of war.

Even as the guns have gone silent the community has continued to grapple with post-traumatic stress that has continued to manifest itself in various ways among the youth, adults and even a large section of our elders who are going through these psychological issues in the community.

As a community worker in Northern Uganda, I work daily in the realities of post-conflict recovery and reconstruction.

Drawing on this experience and expertise, I can say that these events are not isolated cases; violence between generations has become prevalent in most post-conflict communities, prompted by issues around land, alcoholism and many others. Local community systems at grassroots levels have been handling cases of this nature on a daily bases among the regions of the post-conflict setting in Uganda.

And so, with this perspective, I would want us to look at these two incidents in a soberer way to give as a better understanding of how we can address the issues of ‘software vs the hardware' demand in post-conflict society reconstruction.

From a conflict analyst perspective, I would want the public to understand that post-conflict reconstruction and recovery priority should not focus only on the hardware issues of the buildings, roads, schools, and many other infrastructural and environmental developments, but should instead prioritize issues of the ‘software': the ability for the post-conflict community to move from the heavy trauma during the conflict, the shock of starting to rebuild their lives without food and economic support and many other related issues.

This takes a long time and is only made possible if priorities are put on the issues of ‘software': changing the mindset of the population especially the youth to look at life in a productive and collaborative way in the aftermath of conflict

A group of community members, political leaders and "elites' on social media have called for the harshest penalties available to the law to punish the young man, especially after watching the rather painful video of the young boy beating his grandmother.

While I do not condone this act in any way, instead of this course of action I would rather call for holistic support to wipe out some of these deep-rooted issues in the community.

In one of our WhatsApp's group ‘Acholi think' this unfortunate event generated a lot discussion, especially with members in the diaspora, often argue that there is no need to talk about the nearly three-decade of war as a reason for these occurrences, with others even going as far as to say the youth are simply lazy and should go and farm.

These positions are uncalled for especially if we are not doing much to address the root cause of this laziness which is deeply rooted to lack of ‘software' support being provided to these young men and adults lets us start by firstly, filling in the software gaps among the youth in post-conflict settings

A lot of people may not be aware that the reintegration process of people into the community was underdeveloped, with a poor social rehabilitation package and follow-ups.

Couple this with the return home process from the IDP camps, and there are many significant issues that communities need to consider.  How do you expect a man of 35 years who lived most of his life in the camp to go and farm without preparing his mind psychologically, his cultural understandings and his social imaginaries; this is a person who never held a hoe but he now needs to find ways of dealing with the present reality

Through my work in post-conflict settings, I have participated in the documentation of testimonies from war victims and survivors, and I can confidently say a lot more needs to be done by the relevant authorities to support community members overcome past challenges

As we reflect further on these two incidents, we need to consider the social structures and cultural understandings after the nearly three-decade of conflict in Northern Uganda.

We all have a role to play in fixing the ‘software' needs of our community members, lets us not be distracted by the joy of seeing the ‘hardware' development and instead recognize how all the hardware improvements will be ultimately meaningless without the software to support and utilize it.

nonofrncs@gmail.com 

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