Community views on aid and social cohesion in eastern DRC
This qualitative study conducted in Mweso and Minova explores the tensions between host communities, displaced persons, and returnees, as well as the local mechanisms that support or undermine social cohesion.
In Mweso, the most prominent tensions stem from economic pressure, land conflicts, and a strong distrust of aid, perceived as unequal or opaque. In Minova, tensions are more evident in everyday discrimination, the exhaustion of host families, and frustration with humanitarian interventions that are perceived as irregular or poorly explained. In both areas, feelings of being “abandoned” or unheard fuel tensions, while repeated displacement complicates the rebuilding of relationships.
Communities rely on several local structures to mitigate conflicts: local chiefs, groups of elders, community organisations, mediation initiatives, churches, and Village Savings and Loan Associations. These mechanisms are perceived as legitimate but lack resources and training. Conflicts could be avoided or resolved earlier if these structures were better supported and considered by aid actors.
The group discussions and community workshops that followed the research highlight local priorities that humanitarian organisations can address: a demand for more regular and inclusive dialogue, greater transparency on targeting criteria, fairer distributions that avoid pitting displaced people against host families, and working better with existing community structures. They also call for strengthening livelihoods, supporting VSLAs, training local leaders, and making aid more predictable and better adapted to people’s needs. Humanitarian workers close to communities recognise the relevance of these demands, while emphasising that their room for manoeuvre remains limited when key decisions are taken outside their intervention area.
In short, people in these two contexts have different needs but share common expectations: to be better informed, better considered, and more involved. Social cohesion cannot be decreed; it is built by embracing and strengthening what already exists and by making humanitarian action more accessible, transparent, and coherent.