The national meeting in 2007 marked the completion of the first phase of work.

Led by our Burundian partner CENAP, the programme has involved 2200 Burundians over the last 12 months. They have taken part in focus groups that aimed to identify the remaining obstacles to lasting peace.

By bringing together people from different backgrounds with varying opinions for the discussion groups, including people reluctant to meet each other, the process has begun to build bridges between Burundians. The outcome was the mapping of obstacles to peace that provided the agenda for the national meeting in October in Bujumbura.

200 key stakeholders attended the Bujumbura meeting that was facilitated by the Interpeace partner CENAP. High level representatives of the government at the national level, provincial and commune levels, of the political parties, of the military and the police, religious leaders, the media and civil society organizations actively participated.

Four priorities were set for the second phase:

Disarmament of the civil population,

• poverty and unemployment,
• preparation of the elections and management of the election results,
• transitional justice .

During the coming year, CENAP and Interpeace will focus their participatory research and dialogue process on these 4 topics and will engage the Burundian society in the search for operational solutions to these peacebuilding challenges.