From peace to progress

Abstract

Following the completion of Phase 1 of the StrengtheningCommunities for Peace (SCP) project, Leitana Nehan obtainedfunding for a second phase of the project with the same name butsubtitled 'From Peace to Progress'. Phase 2 ran over a period of 13months between January 2003 and February 2004.Like Phase 1, Phase 2 emphasised personal development, particularly Integral Human Development (IHD), but also stressed community development through the strengthening of civil society and good governance at both the community and state levels (Cox 2004b).This emphasis had potentially important consequences for Bougainville, which was preparing at the time to become an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea under a new constitution. The main challenge in Phase 2 was not merely meeting set targets in SCP but also working in a gender sensitive way at all levels of activities that Leitana Nehan conducted. As with Phase I, Phase 2 ran in parallel to other activities that supported the overarching projectobjective of 'advancing the role of women in society'.