Strengthening traditional approaches to community-level land disputes
Abstract
Since the discovery of oil in Bunyoro sub-region, land-related conflicts have grown rapidly. Traditional conflict
resolution capacities, which were already in a state of disrepair, have been side-lined and the court system has
been overwhelmed. Given this context, the objective of this research was to enhance the capacity of local
peacebuilders to help resolve land conflicts in their communities. The research was based on an action research
approach which involved three phases ‒ exploring the issue, planning and implementing an intervention and
evaluating the short-term outcomes. In the exploration phase, data was collected using focus group discussions
with community members and in-depth interviews with key informants. In the intervention phase, an action
team was formed to help resolve land-related conflicts in their communities, using traditional conflict resolution
approaches. The short-term outcomes show that local peacebuilding capacities were enhanced and that many
land-related conflicts were resolved using traditional conflict resolution approaches