Priorities: Peace First

To better understand respondents’ opinions of the way to move toward peace, we first asked them to define their current top priority. Reflecting the ongoing political instability and conflict, peace is the most frequently mentioned priority (32%). When asked about the meaning of peace, respondents define it as a broad social concept that goes beyond the absence of violence and includes the absence of fear (47%), living together, united (39%), freedom (34%), having basic needs fulfilled (29%), the absence of violence (26%), a good economy (21%), and health and education services (15%).

Figure 3: Respondents Top Priority

Livelihood concerns are also frequently mentioned among respondents’ top priorities, including money (23%), work (16%), and services including health (6%) and education (5%). These priorities reflect respondents’ current living conditions and lack of access to social services. Many of the villages sampled in the survey lacked infrastructure, or supplies, and had no official teachers. When respondents were asked to rank a range of services, few found them to be good or very good. Only one-third of them ranked their access to water as good or very good. One in four or less ranked their access to education and health services as good or very good. Indeed, while such services are generally available in urban center and large villages, they are often lacking or of poor quality in rural areas.

Figure 4: Ranking of Services (% Good – Very Good)