Aid Seen from the Bottom: Community realities and representations of aid in Eastern DRC

Africa’s Great Lakes region has been plagued by deadly armed conflicts for almost three decades, resulting in internal and international displacement. Marked by issues of governance, natural resource management, land grab- bing, and food insecurity, Eastern DRC is at the core of these conflicts. Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are working to address the multi- faceted crises in the region. This report investigates community perceptions of the actions carried out by these actors in Eastern DRC, in Kalehe and Uvira (Ruzizi Plain) territories. These two areas are characterized by a significant presence of humanitarian, development and peacebuilding organizations (NGOs, UN agencies, etc.), along with armed group activism. This report provides feedback to stakeholders in these areas on the perceptions and representations of their actions to beneficiaries. The study addresses the following questions: What are the community’s perceptions of NGO actions in a peacebuilding process and what are the possible effects?