缅北禁地

Meet Raluca Eddon.

About myself: I am the Peacebuilding and Transition Advisor to the 缅北禁地Resident Coordinator's Office in C?te d'Ivoire, and, this capacity, also coordinating the Peacebuilding Fund portfolio. I have been a member of the Peacebuilding Support Office, PBSO, team on and off for over a decade - originally, as a 'secondee' in 2008-2009, and, subsequently, a Coordinator of the PBF Secretariat in Guinea Bissau for almost five years from 2010 to 2015. Originally an academic by training, I have been working for the 缅北禁地for fifteen years, ten of these in Africa. ??

My work at the Peacebuilding Fund in C?te d’Ivoire: The PBF portfolio is extraordinarily diverse - since 2008, the PBF is estimated to have touched over Four?million people in C?te d’Ivoire, through a variety of interventions involving all key peacebuilding actors, including women, youth, local and traditional authorities, government authorities, security forces, street gangs, neighborhood associations, political parties, civil society, media, human rights groups, ?victims of sexual violence, border communities, sports groups… of virtually all walks of life, political affiliations, religions, regions, ethnicities and backgrounds. It has played a vital role in the transition from the?United Nations Operation in C?te d'Ivoire (UNOCI), to the 缅北禁地Country Team, following the closure of UNOCI in 2017.

I'm currently working on three key initiatives for 2020 - electoral support, a new initiative on the management of natural resources as an entry point for peace consolidation, and an important regional project focused on peacebuilding challenges in the Mano River countries - while preparing the groundwork for the eventual drawdown of the PBF, after more than a decade.?

Peacebuilding in the time of Coronavirus: Covid-19 has forced us to be innovative and to think more deeply about the different facets of peacebuilding. We quickly re-oriented USD 1.4 million of ongoing activities within the context of the response and collaboration with PBSO has never been closer or more effective. We have set up an online 'workspace' for all PBF focal points centered around weekly meetings, where we exchange on any and all topics, ranging from no-cost extensions to the Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative?projects.?

It is exciting that the communication platforms developed within the context of the COVID-19 response, also with PBF support, will now be put to use for electoral violence prevention… an excellent example of how peacebuilding innovations helped the response, which in turn is now contributing to peace consolidation. ???

My work situation these days:?My office is a five-minute walk from our apartment, so I never bothered setting up a proper workspace at home. As a result, I'm now sharing a desk with my 6-year-old daughter…? I'm a 'squatter' in her workspace, in other words, which makes for an interesting background to Zoom meetings and other online conversations.?

My daily routine these days:?I am taking it one day at a time… It has been a challenging time juggling work and online learning for my two kids, each of which is a full-time job in itself. But it has also offered us an opportunity to discover new things… new approaches to organizing my work, and a wonderful chance to get to know the school life of my children up close. We are lucky to live in a building surrounded by enough open space for the kids to be able to run around outside at least once a day, and I will be forever grateful to my next-door neighbor and her kitten, whose apartment has been a recurring destination for the kids while I'm sitting at the computer. ?

I try to cram as much work as possible into the first part of the day in order to be able to support my kids with their online learning in the afternoons. Some days it works better than others… just the other day, all three of us were in separate Zoom meetings at the same time! We live in a relatively small apartment in Abidjan, and 'sharing the same workspace,' as they say, so it can get a bit challenging at times. But it has also been an adventure… a way of learning to handle together whatever comes our way. We hope this experience will have made us stronger, wiser and more insightful by the end of the confinement. ? ?

Finding ‘peace’:?I try to exercise regularly and I am really grateful for all the Pilates classes I've taken in the past, which have taught me to focus on the 'core,' both literally and figuratively. We try to keep our balance as best we can… and to recover it as quickly as we can when we slip.