 Good morning and good afternoon to all of our viewers and thank you for joining us. My name is Elizabeth Murray and I am a senior program officer in the Africa Center at the United States Institute of Peace. Alongside the National Endowment for Democracy, our co-sponsor of this event, we at USIP are delighted to host today's conversation to highlight civil society's perspectives on peace and democracy in the Central African Republic. I first want to share an important logistical note. You will notice that there are two webcasts on the page that you are viewing. The top one is in English and the bottom one is in French. You may choose the one that you wish to view. I'd also like to share just a few words about USIP. We are a national, nonpartisan, independent institute founded by the United States Congress in 1984. We are dedicated to reducing and mitigating violent conflicts through our work with local partners and governments to build capacity to manage conflicts peacefully. USIP has worked in sub-Saharan Africa since the late 1980s. In recognition of the peace-building opportunities in the region and the importance of Africa to US national security, USIP created the Africa Center in late 2020. The Central African Republic has been a priority for USIP since we began work in the country in 2014. We have had the privilege of working with many exceptional partners in civil society, at the community level, in government, and with multilateral organizations. We hope that today's event will draw attention to the continuing conflicts in CAR and generate ideas and proposals for how to support Central Africans who are working for peace. While some of the indicators in CAR are favorable, including improved security in the West and many major towns in the East, insecurity remains a fact of life for many Central Africans. Armed groups and the Central African Armed Forces and their allies have all been accused of human rights violations. Around 25% of the population remains displaced and approximately half of the population is food insecure. In many reasons of the country, citizens do not have access to basic services. CAR is also at the center of a rivalry between external partners. This rivalry has had significant consequences for international assistance to the country and the CAR government stands at the precipice of a financial crisis. Amidst these challenges however, community leaders and civil society leaders have shown creativity and persistence in working to reduce tension and violence. Local mediation and other peace building efforts have succeeded in bringing a degree of stability to many parts of the country, even as formal peace agreements have struggled to take hold. We have an excellent group of panelists today and we will introduce them shortly. They include three Central African civil society leaders and one international analyst. During the first portion of the event, our experts will respond to a series of questions about the challenges to peace and democracy in CAR. We invite you, our audience, to submit questions via the chat box at the bottom of the webcast page. You may submit your questions in French or English. We also invite you to tweet about the event using the hashtag CAR, peace and democracy. Peace and democracy in CAR are important first and foremost for the 4.9 million Central Africans, but CAR is also important to the region. With several coups in South Africa over the past two years, it is vital to examine and work to mitigate the risk to democracy in CAR. Moreover, the conflict dynamics in the Central Africa region cross borders and stand to neighboring countries. Achieving a durable peace in CAR will bring silver benefits to the country's neighbors. I'd now like to hand the floor to my colleague, my colleague, Valerie Najiba, Program Officer for Central Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy, who will moderate the conversation. Valerie, we at USIT are grateful for our partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy on Central Africa, and we are pleased to be co-hosting this event with you. Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you, Elizabeth, and good afternoon to viewers from Bangui, D.C., and all of the cities in the world who follow us. My name is Valerie Najiba. I'm head of the Central African Program at the National Endowment for Democracy. We were created in 1983 by the US Congress as a nonprofit organization dedicated to growth and peacebuilding in the world. This foundation, this endowment, is at the forefront of democracy. We at NDI are convinced that democracy is something that is a right for one and all. And NDI offers over 2,000 subsidies to support projects in over 100 countries working for democracy since its independence from France in 1960. Central African Republic has been subject to sectarian violence in a chronic fashion, and this has slowed our democracy or democratic progress. We have a lot of great natural resources, gold, diamonds, uranium, gas, wood, and fauna. NDI has been in the CAR for over 27 years to support civil society, peace, social cohesion, education, and civic engagement with a particular focus on youth, women, and other traditionally marginalized groups in the society. We are also very happy to co-sponsor this event, as my colleague Elizabeth mentioned, is very timely given the situation in Central African Republic. And in order to begin the subject, these perspectives on peace and security in CAR, these perspectives from the civil society, we have four excellent experts and panelists. This is Casey Martine Ecomo-Swanier, who is a young activist from Central Africa. She's also the founder and director of the URU organization. We also have Mr. Rosin in Gattongue-Zalang, who is president of the Youth Organization Association Jeunesse en Marche for Development in CAR. We also have Mr. Abdel-Rouh Nour, the vice president for Islamic Youth in CAR. And from Nairobi, Kenya, we also have Mr. Hans de Marie Gour, he is a senior Central African analyst within International Crisis Group. So we will begin our discussion and we're going to start with our first question for Casey. Casey, there are reports that indicate that security in CAR has improved, including in the West and major cities in the East. Is this true that citizens are now benefiting from a better security? Thank you, Valeria. Hello everybody. It's a real pleasure to be here with you for this meeting. And to answer this question, I think we have to look at the Central African security issue. There are different approaches. The first is that we need to see security under the angle of the armed groups. And we also have to see what is the democracy dynamics in the country. How then does CAR consider security? We did a number of polls on site. And security is considered as a freedom of movement in Central African. And today, when we compare it to two years ago, it's true that things have improved. But as I mentioned, it doesn't mean that things have radically changed. Today, we noticed that, for instance, we're not talking about tensions or attacks. It's more isolated incidents in a province. So we don't have these massive killings of the populations. But that said, we still see a lot of tensions among different groups and PAKAs who have the Russian allies on their side. And so there are sporadic incidents. Well, unfortunately, we have fewer of these other incidents relative to what's going on. However, we noticed that in this progression in the different activities that are led by the security forces, we do have a number of aggressive behaviors against the Pearl community. And that is basically a growing and latent conflict with regards to the situation. Second dynamic is the democracy dynamic. We have the PAKA and the allies that the government has decided to deal with. It's difficult with the civil society as a whole, and there is an impact on security. We noticed today that the civil society is quite worried about this. Thank you, Casey. My second question is related to this. There have been a number of coups in Francophone Africa over the last two years. How strong is Central African democracy right now? Are there major risks? And we will ask our panelists, Hans and Abdel, perhaps they can give us some response. Hans, would you like to take it away? Yes, hello again or good morning, good afternoon or wherever you may be located. I have a point of view that might be slightly different from the dominant response. I think the CAR has a long way to go before it can really ensure its democracy. And I would compare this to other countries in Central Africa where the democracy or democratic system is more advanced. There are several criteria to determine the level of democracy. You can look at the institutions, the documents, as well as the check and balance of separation of powers and the existence of an opposition that has a certain power of civil society. And we could include the media who also are playing a counterpoint in democracy. So those are the larger principles. And under that light, we could say that yes, Central African Republic has a democratic process, but it's not as good as it could be, especially with the different measures that were taken by the executive power over the last two years. The opposing parties were seeing their passports detained and civil society is not really able to mobilize and to demonstrate in the streets. And with regards to this and the kind of precarity that we see in Central Africa, we could think that Central African democracy is problematic. The executive controls the parliament and the judicial and we saw this in various situations. But with regards to the tax, last year I looked at the constitutional tax of the CIMAC area. And I concluded that this is something that we will look at in terms of how these texts were developed. And the Central African Republic and its own constitution, I think, is much further advanced than many other countries in the sub-region. The CIM applies to our electoral law and we have to also consider the implementation. There's a lot to say there. When I discussed with a few opponents and say they're the head of the opposition, they acknowledged fundamentally that there's nothing much to challenge. But some of the institutions, on the other hand, the constitutional court in the old days was somewhat objective over the 18 months. Gradually they slipped into favoring the executive power, rather. I'll conclude with another point, which is the following. The CAR is a social construct from an anthropological point of view. There again, I only have a mostly positive view of this country when you see how the political parties have come together in sumac and Cameroon gavel. As you can see in most of these spaces, they are strong chieftains. That's an outgrowth of ethnic communities that wanted vertical power, even if there's verticality. There are checks and balances. There is the rune phenomenon in the Cameroon, but when you see traditional CAR constructs in the northeast, there are a few sultans. Over time, rarely achieved and benefited from this form of omnipotence that you see in other societies such as Chad and Gavel. Even this leads one to think that in CAR, there is a form, in my opinion, of horizontality, which is not rooted enough. Our country, CAR, has still a ways to go in terms of democratization, if you consider the great principles of democracy, balance of power, elections and so forth. However, it is the country which is the smallest GNP of sumac, but from an institutional point of view. In a way, we have written these things down. We are the furthest advanced. Thank you, Hans. And discussing these elections, we know that the last elections, the last local. They were organized in 1988. And since then, the organization of local is party. You suggested local elections for the first time in a while this year. This will be after the last elections. And now, can you tell us more in terms of the status of elections? Will they really take place? And what are the preparations? And what are the requirements that should be in place? Could you analyze this situation, please? We cannot hear you, Rosin. It seems that your microphone is muted. Hello. Hello, Rosin. Hello, everyone. For this moment, this exchange is very important. As you know, it is important to underscore this theme currently. The political arc. Is that a standstill? Rosin, can you speak louder? Because we really can't hear you terribly well at all. As I was saying, thank you. It's important to underscore that the tragic disappearance of certain foreign politics in the CR, that's why we're witnessing what is going on right now. Allow me to pay tribute, first of all, to the political goodwill to come up with the organization of elections. And they should take place on September 11th. But that was postponed. Otherwise, it's a major challenge for peace. Why? Because the current generation, the people who are old enough to vote, have not experienced elections on a municipal level. So it's important for this generation. It's important to say that the success of these elections will be a victory for democracy. However, the failure of these elections can trigger something worse. Further deterioration of democracy and peace in CR. Speaking of this, in terms of the preparations, there is a national authority for elections that oversees this. But you have to review the mapping and you have to update. And that's a lot of work, too, to be successful in terms of the organization. And these local elections are very healthy for peace and democracy. So in a nutshell, I'll come back to this challenge for democracy and peace. If the government and the Central Africans are successful on a local level, it will prepare the people to vote to explain why, what are the advantages. And this will motivate participation in CR. Thank you, Rosa. A very pertinent analysis. I would like to remind the audience and encourage viewers to submit their questions in the chat box at the bottom of the page. We encourage them as well to use the hashtag of the event, CR, peace and democracy. If you could do that, I think that the museum in UNED will be very proud. My next question pertains to KC. Since you work with the youth and the women in terms of education engagement, do you think that the citizens will participate in these local elections? And what are your ideas to improve this citizen involvement? Thank you very much. I will piggyback on what was said. I think that we are in a country for over 30 years. There was no local governance. Even I am of a generation. I don't know what this is all about. It's very theoretical, although we learned it in school. We are part of a youth movement. And for us, we are full of hope to pursue this. And the gap between the people and the decision makers is so huge. It's good to have this opportunity. These local elections, as Rosine said, are historical. But beyond everything, you have to support the communities as well. And that's what we're trying to do to our organizations to explain what is local governance to understand the importance. But identify one's role to avoid the same scheme. We want to create a framework where the people could speak up and play this role and have an impact in terms of governance. At a national level, I got in touch with different young people when we talk about local governance. A lot of people are in disbelief. They feel it's just going to be rubber stamping of what exists already. But people see it as an opportunity. But the support is really fundamental. It's not only a question of funding, but it's also common sense and organization as an organization from civil society. And I think we have to re-inject trust. It was interesting what Ulce was saying in terms of local authorities in the CAAR context. That's one of the issues we experienced. We lost the value and the importance to have local leaders who support the local communities. And that's where we find a meaning in our fight as a citizen. I'm full of hope as a young person. And I see that amongst my peers, the women are committed. They understood that they can play a role. There's the law on parity that is about to be implemented. But at the local level, there's an opportunity to... And the women understood this. Things are moving. The campaigns are working well. More and more young people and young women. And it's extremely positive. Thank you, Kisi. You mentioned Hans. I'd like to go back to that. And to ask the same question to Abdel, who is the vice president of JICA. What is his analysis of the robustness of CAAR democracy? Are there major risks involved? We cannot hear you. Abdel. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Valerie. I think in terms of my predecessor, I will reiterate certain elements that pertain to democracy and CAAR. We are experiencing a situation that we've lived through over 10 years as was underscored in the question of the Central African authorities have piggybacked on this phenomenon, which is becoming a reality in French-speaking African countries. As Hans mentioned, CAAR has enjoyed a certain momentum in terms of feasibility of these laws to respect freedom of expression, human rights. As you can see, this happens in a country where we have a democracy and very often the opposition is seen as enemies. We feel that we are enemies. And a general African could never go onto a national radio and speak out. Democracy, as we see it in Western countries, is predicated upon the public. The national authorities are looking to the public to get messages, but that's not the situation here in the way that we are structured. In terms of powers and institutions, those are already in place. The issues with regards to communication, good governance, there are institutions and there is compliance to those principles of democracy. I think for other issues, we are really in our very first steps. As far as our democratic solidity, I think we're really in our initial steps. We mentioned the solution, which is underway in CAAR, which has to do the electoral issues. And I did want to follow up on what Casey had mentioned. There are a number of rumors on social networks, which has to do with the modification of the processes, and this seems to be growing. A number of parties, including one that is a fond institution, have to mobilize a number of young people in various villages or neighborhoods. And the idea would be to modify the constitution. I think that young people are aware, the people are also alerted by the situation as well as the authorities. I think if we wanted to really consolidate our democracy, we have to respect the constitution. The constitution is absolutely fundamental. It is the one guarantee of normal democracy. And if there is a violation of the constitution, we no longer have a democracy. So yes, Central African Republic is progressing in terms of respecting the democratic principles, but not entirely. And in certain areas, it's not applying the principles. So that is what I wanted to add to the conversation. And I think we'll follow up on a question which I will ask Rosen is hate speech a serious problem in CAR. What is the impact that it is having on the conflict in terms of democratic process and who is most at risk and how is it possible to fight against this kind of hate speech. Thank you. I would like to say that yes, hate speech is a problem in our country with given given the fact that we have a tremendous ethnic diversity, many ethnic groups, different languages. Hate speech is a problem. We have noticed an increase in hate speech amongst different groups and as a way to push people to action. And I think this has the result of fueling latent conflicts. We have looked at the situation with regards to hate speech. We've noticed that sometimes people who are controlling a certain region will be the ones using this hate speech to challenge the right or the authorities of others. Sometimes certain terms are used from certain languages which are pejorative. It is a way of creating division amongst people of creating mistrust among each other so that a control could be established on a certain region. It is in the lexicon that we have talked about. The ones who are with power in power use this hate speech and those between the government and the people these issues are growing. I think what we need to do, the interpreter apologizes but the sound is extremely choppy and difficult to hear. What we need to do is teach young people also to speak to others and to recognize diversity as a wealth, as a richness in the country. I think if we have proper speech and we know how to speak to each other, we can grow within the community. We need to teach political leaders to speak that way as well, to speak in terms of peace and democracy. Otherwise we will not move forward. Yes, diversity is a wealth and these kinds of peaceful speech are good, are very positive. Thank you for answering that. Do you think it is a problem, this hate speech? I think absolutely, I would not even hesitate. The cultural diversity that we have in Central Africa is very precious. We have a multitude of ethnic communities as we have mentioned and I think that is a tremendous wealth. These are the necessary elements and the important elements for us to consolidate our wealth in Central African Republic. But most of the population as a whole does not have the way of measuring the impact of certain words. They are not aware of the fact that certain words have an impact on behavior or on the moral state. And as a result, they cannot really recognize the extent to which this has an impact. I think that certain actors have noticed that their terms are words that are used in discussions and those are words that will trigger conflict. They will trigger conflicts within the community or ethnic groups. So there is a kind of glossary of hate speech that is used in Central African Republic. And so I would say if you have Muslim Central Africans and you'll say, oh, you're an Arab, you're a Burro. Well, the Arab would say that we'll say, you know, we are part of the Arab community instead of Central African community. But when we talk about Arabs, so we think about Saudi Arabia, so when we call somebody in Arab, you're basically saying you're not a Central African. You are somebody else. And there are a number of bandits. We also use words like shia, people who wear face covering. We call them dogs of Chadira. And that's very shocking. There are words that have a tremendous impact. And that I think is the fundamental issue that characterizes this hateful speech in Central African. And you mentioned one thing and you said, does it have an impact? Of course it has an impact. If we are here today, I think it's because certain elements wanted to see this shake up in CR. There's defamation, discredit, accusations that are preferred. And these words are important. We say, oh, the northerner is here, or you have to stay there. And these are discriminatory distinctions. It's what really promotes hate against one and all. So I would say that yes, we still have hate speech in CR and it has an impact. And sometimes in the neighborhood, we'll say, oh, go see the Yakama lady. That is a Central African ethnic group. Go to Yakama woman to buy spice. And so we're basically teaching the kids that there are different members of society. And these children will grow up with this idea and this way of seeing, way of living. And as a result, it anchors something in their mind and it changes their outlook. So with regards to hate speech, I think we have a huge amount of work to do. First of all, we have to increase various activities to fight against hate speech within the community. And we have to have programs to fight against this because it's very difficult on a financial level to have any kind of mobility otherwise. I don't know if you have something to add to that, but I would say that yes, hate speech is a very serious problem in Central African Republic. Thank you very much for that contribution. Now, we're going to talk now about the political agreement for peace and reconciliation in the CR. Which was signed in February 2019 with 14 armed groups. This agreement was limited. That was put in peace and other efforts were started for the Great Lakes regions to launch these processes. So what is the situation with the peace process in the CR and what is the best way to go forward to reach an agreement that will be respected. Thank you. This is a hugely important subject. Why? Because when this agreement was signed in the previous weeks, if you remember, the agreement was presented as a last recourse, the last chance agreement. And when we talked to the various diplomats of Western and African Union countries, that was a perception that they still have to this day. That there is a kind of weirdness on the part of these parties. There's so much has been mobilized in time and energy and resources to find a political solution that would allow the Central African government and armed groups to cohabitate. But even within the text itself of the agreement, there are some issues. For instance, talking about transitional justice or the implementation of certain aspects and certain elements were left very undefined, which became just a very generalized advocacy. But I think unless things are very specified in details, you know, this is not tenable and we cannot move forward from the cartoon agreements. But I think the most important part was the implementation of this agreement because it was not done in good faith, not on the part of the government, not on the part of the armed groups. And I would say that on the part of the government, there's also a responsibility, the fact that certain units such as the MSQ were not put in place. And there were a number of processes that were pointing out certain armed groups, whether they had taken over power or just had decisional power. I think the examples are legion. There is a procedure now in front of the criminal courts because the 3R was responsible for massacres in the Muna area. It's a number of violations of the armed groups. So the agreement is at a standstill to be perfectly honest. I think it has very little chance to be revived at this point, if we can use that word for a number of reasons. Two actors brought about positions that are irreconcilable. Now you have the Wagner paramilitary people who are in a position of strength. They were able to expel people from the above mentioned locations and they're relegated to the periphery and the periphery of the periphery. So the government does not intend to negotiate a new agreement or even grant these armed groups what they seek. It was discussed in cartoon with the former head of state, Boussisee. Among other requests, they want to be able to control the territory that they control here too far. They have to go to Bombay. They have to go back to Boussangoa and so forth. For the government, it's out of the question for the armed groups. If we weren't able to take power, we should at least be able to get back our former situation, which was already fraught. And it's because of the situations that they launch the operation and you also mentioned the following. There's discouragement. There's a lack of goodwill from the government that made some robust statements, but in practice, as I said, there's no longer an interest to negotiate with the armed groups. And they promise those who would surrender would not fall between the net of justice, but the armed groups, they do not want to abandon fighting. They're hoping that the international situation will play in their favor and that here and there, certain actors, non-central Africans will help them out in their operations. And this is very risky as well because these actors, when you observe them, they seem disinclined to such maneuvers. So we might end up with a status quo and the group arms will still have thousands of men in different local areas along the border. And there'll be skirmishes and you also have the government supported by the Russians. And you find them in the main cities, making sure that most of the economy, the most important mining sites in the main corridors, leading to Bongi will be under their control. Thank you, Hans. Can you see those? There's not much of a likelihood to have a peace accord. So do you see a roadmap to reach a long-lasting peace agreement? That will be respected. Thank you, Valerie. I think that I will explain rather how civil society perceives the situation very candidly. Nobody speaks of PPR. People don't believe in it anymore. We don't believe in it. We're not aware of the evolution, despite the secretariat at the president's level in terms of the initiative with the Great Lakes. The situation today is not what it should be. It's not a lack of interest, but I think we need the civil society to refocus things, have evolved to discuss security issues. The civil society realized that security had somewhat improved, but at the central level, at the government level, in terms of the state, there are dynamics that are destroying, actually, the trust and the stability of the people. There are excesses. There are attempts to change the constitution. There are false information circulating. Some actors are going on social networks. These are very harsh rhetoric for civil society. We know that regardless the accords are what they are and what they're doing there, it's a way of protecting these accords to hold people to the accords that they have taken. It poses some problems. The agreements are being followed, but people are discouraged. The partners continue to quote them, but without really believing. I think that at the end of the day, everybody is concerned by how the state is evolving, the choices that are being made on different issues that lead us to think that for a lot of people we might end up in another crisis in the years to come because nothing is stable anymore. Let's remain with civil society. Abdel, what are the main challenges to which civil society is confronted? In a nutshell, thank you, Valerie. I think that there are huge challenges that civil society must meet in terms of peace, namely, and democracy. And from a peace perspective, as Cassie had underscored earlier, there's a slight improvement in terms of security, but not much. Insecurity remains, that's a challenge to promote peace. Civil society is not only promoting peace, but it encourages other people to be resilient. If there's no free movement in terms of activities on the ground, things are not easy. As a result, this issue of insecurity remains a phenomenon that we must fight to promote peace in Central Africa as a second element, which represents a challenge linked to peace. It's this issue linked to the hate speech on the social networks, things go viral. People, if somebody see a conflict with such a person, there are messages that concern not only the person who the address see, but other people linked to the regime or a certain ethnic group or a certain religion. So as a result, this hate speech, these hateful words represent a huge challenge to promote peace. Third element, civil society is active on the ground. They are more focused and actually bangy, and inside the country, these are international organizations that are inside the country, supported by certain national organizations, but few. But civil society can't truly enlarge its scope. It's a question of financial mobility. So that's a hurdle. There's goodwill. There are skills. You have strategies, methods to reach out are there. But sometimes there's this lack of ability that civil society experiences in terms of democracy and CAR, we'd have to try to underscore this democracy. I think CAR is moving ahead in terms of stability. To get to know democracy better linked to this, the people psychologically lives in fear to express entirely what they feel linked either to the government or a phenomenon. People are afraid in a nutshell, too. There's this issue related to impunity and intolerance. And yes, civil society is fighting, but sometimes the voice is not heard. There was this issue related to the Ministry of Herding in the Constitution, Article 28, preventing people to gain access to a government position. But actually, there's no state per se. In the government, people came in via the window rather than the main door. So this is also related to democracy and inclusion, freedom of expression. The people feel that it must feel that he's in his country that he can express himself as he pleases. This should be underscored that people live in fear they can express their feelings publicly or privately. So society is undermined. You feel that your neighbor is your friend and you become suspicious. So fear is in the heart of many Central Africans. They feel they don't have this freedom. They cannot express their feelings, their joy. That are some of the challenges since Kessie is there and Rosinilla, if there are certain elements linked to peace and democracy as experts, they can bring about more Moving ahead in this direction, there are a few questions from the audience. The first question is linked to this hate rhetoric. You're being asked, is there a difference in these hateful rhetorics? Is there a difference between what happens in Bangui, the capital, and the country? Yes, there is a difference. CER enjoys ethnic diversity and there are a whole array of local languages as well. They are not compatible with the national language. Let me take an example in Central Africa. People come from the forest. That very word creates attention. Some who come from the inside will not be accepted as somebody from the bush or the forest. This is a typical example. Moreover, there's also certain elements inside. Let me take the case of ethnic groups, the Apoa people. There is the Kaba ethnic group and there are two Apoa ethnic groups that don't get along. There were a number of activities that were in groups that were living together and they had to come together, these two different ethnic groups. But that is just an example. If you are a member of one ethnic group, you might not necessarily agree or get along with the different ethnic groups. We did not see necessarily confrontation, but we have terms, for instance, that translate traditionally to people who like to eat. How could I say this? How could I describe it? So it's the French translation that is problematic. It's this idea. We're following what you're saying, but there's another issue related to this. Because people in general, when they look at their role as civil society, and especially with the upcoming elections, they wonder how they can participate, how they can be a part of it. Well, that is the heart of the work that we're trying to do with the civil society. Because what we need is to set in place independent observers that could supervise the elections and beyond this, we would need some kind of supervisory or monitoring instances so that we can prevent any kind of fraud. Like I said, we're really in a context today that has cooling things down. It's hard for people to understand what the fraud is and how they are being manipulated. Today we see, for instance, petitions going around to change constitutions. That is something that really alerted us as civil society. So we know how important it is to give the proper information to the population because we already see that there's quite a bit of disinformation around the workings of the government. It's important for the civil society to gain good information and to follow the candidates as well as the various leaders that they will ostensibly support. And to work with young people because they're highly dynamic electoral campaigns in our country are often hard and parcel of disinformation, of gifts to different groups. There's got to be a lot of work, not only for national elections, but also for local elections. That's the way we need to proceed. Yes. And Casey, I'd like to follow up with another question from the audience who's asking, what does civil society expect from Minuska to bring peace back to Central African Republic? Well, Minuska has a new leadership. This is recent and this is a new director. And so we are waiting to see what's going to happen in different approaches and different discussions and how we can move forward with them. I think over the last few months or maybe the last years, the discussions were not as productive with the Minuska as they had been in prior times. So maybe this new leadership will give us a chance to look at certain realities and include civil society. The population perhaps Minuska can play that role to give proper information, correct information and serve as a bridge between us and our authorities. And this is a role that they do play. We recognize that. But in the last few years, we noticed that we had lost to some degree a strategic partner with them. So we're waiting to see and we are hopeful. The door is open. Yes, I think I've done you talk about the challenges of civil society in Central African Republic. And I did want to ask a very quick question to was enhanced. What are your recommendations with regards to the way in which the international community can contribute to peace and democracy in Central African Republic. And perhaps you can give us a one minute response. Thank you. Thank you. My recommendations to increase improve the situation. Yay. Can you please speak up because your sound is very low. Yes, as I was saying. We need to improve the public's confidence. Civil society needs to feel more confident. I see a certain amount of competency on the part of the 30s. I think there needs to be a number of peace and democracy initiatives on the part of civil society as well. Thank you. What do the CI are people expect from the international community to support peace and democracy. We cannot really reflect all of the opinions that are currently in Central African Republic to answer such a question, but I would throw it back to a number of our partners. I would bring up for a long time. It was not very popular, but in order to develop African countries, we had to go around the actual governments. But I'd like to bring attention to this because in Central African Republic and elsewhere, sometimes it's the government that is responsible for the failure of the country. So we need to see what civil society needs to have and what the government needs function in our international partners need to ask themselves this question. What is the priority? And what should be the priorities for that in politically? Sometimes they're very involved and they can give a lot of means to bring back peace and democracy. We need to decide where in Central African Republic space the notice help will come and this is a carrot stick approach. You can't truly push a society to go towards certain models with certain optics that is just predicated on the stick approach. If the government has what you deem as being negative and you bring out the stick, well, you also need when there is progress, especially with stability and democracy, then we need to see a substantial aid that would recognize what has been done and what has been contributed to. Because we know that sometimes these donors are the American taxpayers or Japanese taxpayers, but I think we need enormous means and our international partners need to be aware of that. So we can't just have a drip by drip kind of help and especially in Central Africa. And I'm also interested in hearing what Casey has to say. What are the expectations on the part of the people with regards to the international community for peace and democracy building? There is an expectation, yes. I think CAR is at an ideological pivot point. Something is happening throughout the country and we can see it through different positions that are taken by different actors. There is a political change happening, whether positive or negative, it is happening. And what we're expecting as a part of the international community is to take stock, stop and take stock. I think we're going too fast and there are positions and decisions that are being taken that over the long term could be harmful. So we really need to understand to see things as they're coming to the fore. And I highlight this and every time I will have a platform, I will underline this. I think there is currently an ideological position and if we don't look at that, if we don't analyze it, if we don't really focus on it and we underestimate it, then we are going to become a country that no one will recognize. And one day we'll wake up and that will be the case. So before offering any kind of solutions, we have to be aware of that and we have to react to that. Thank you so much, Casey. I think we've come to the end of our debate. Let's congratulate all our panelists, all of our experts for these relevant analyses on the theme of the day. I'd like to give Elizabeth the floor for a few closing remarks. Thank you to one and all. Thank you Valerie and thank you to all of our speakers for this very, very rich conversation and for so generously sharing your expertise. It was so useful to hear your analysis from the ground in Central African Republic into hear your specific insights on the challenges to peace and democracy. It seems that in recent months other armed conflicts in the region and other challenges to democracy have drawn a lot of the international attention away from car. I think you have really convinced us of the need to refocus on car and the need to make sure that any international policies international assistance are well informed by perspectives from the ground. At the same time I leave the conversation feeling hopeful. You also reminded us of the many opportunities of partnership with youth partnerships with women's groups partnerships with civil society with community organizations and the large opportunity that is the local elections. If we all work together to ensure that citizens are well poised to participate. So thank you. Thank you for your work for sharing your expertise. Thank you to everyone who has joined us today virtually. There was a tremendous amount of attention and many of you are viewing. I apologize that we could not get to all of the questions. But I know that I speak on behalf of Valerie as well when I say that the National Endowment for Democracy and the US Institute of Peace would love to host a follow on conversation. So thank you very much everyone. Thank you.