Creating Ambassadors of Peace in Ethiopia (CAPE)

Internal conflicts have become more intense and frequent in the last decade (Cederman and Pengl 2019). This has doubled of the number of refugees and internally displaced people, with women and children account for the largest portion (WDR 2023). The year 2022 was the deadliest year since 1992 and the global economy lost an estimated USD 17.5 trillion due to conflict (IEP 2023). Nearly 2 billion people worldwide live in areas affected by instability and violent conflict, which has a devastating impact on their welfare and livelihood (United Nations, 2023).
Ethiopia is the case in point. Of the over 8,000 conflict events in the country since 1997, the majority (85%) have occurred in the last decade (ACLED, 2022). Ethiopia is now ranked as one of the 15 least peaceful countries in the world (IEP 2023). These conflicts have had devastating impacts on human life and socio-economic outcomes. More than half-million people have been killed, essential infrastructure worth $25 billion has been destroyed, human rights have been violated and more than 5.1 million people have been displaced (Today News Africa, 2022; IDMC, 2021). Most of the victims are poor and marginalized groups, such as women, youths, elders, and children.
One of the main factors contributing to conflicts in Ethiopia is ethnic prejudice, which is largely rooted in historical memories of inter-ethnic grievances (Moges Teshome, 2021 Jon Abbink, 2012). The current ethnic-based federal structure, the manipulation of historical memories by those seeking political gain, and the proliferation of misinformation on ethnic groups through social media have exacerbated existing prejudice by evoking emotions such as fear, resentment, and hate towards certain ethnic groups (Admassu, 2019; EIP, 2021). The ethnic prejudice is prevalent among most ethnic groups in Ethiopia. This has created a pressing need for identifying effective interventions that can promote healing, understanding, and greater amity among ethnic groups in Ethiopia.
Against this backdrop, we propose the "Host-Family Program" (HFP) as an intervention. The HFP connects university students with families of a different ethnic origin. This creates meaningful contact between students and host families, which may foster understanding, tolerance, and bridge-building through intergroup contact among ethnic groups. The host families are residents in the host university and provide family experience for the students. HFP has the potential to be scaled up and applied in other contexts involving interactions among people of different ethnic origins and religious backgrounds.
The proposed intervention aims to reduce ethnic-based violences and conflicts by changing people's minds and hearts (prejudice) about the other. This will ultimately lead to a reduction in the negative impacts of conflict on human life and socio-economic outcomes. Moreover, reducing in prejudice will foster free movement of people, the return of the displaced to their original homes, and the mitigation of human and physical costs.