3 January 2013 - The Nord Kivu Civil Society Provincial Coordination, in collaboration with the Civil Affairs and Public Information sections of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), organized a forum to raise public awareness about MONUSCO's mandate. Approximately 300 participants representing religious groups and ethnic communities of Nord Kivu, as well as universities and colleges of Goma, attended the forum which allowed them to get acquainted with the mandate of MONUSCO.

Bonaventure Negura Bary, general rapporteur of the Nord Kivu Civil Society Provincial Coordination, introduced the discussion by asking these two questions: "Do we really understand the role of MONUSCO?" and "Are we, as the nation's active forces, sufficiently engage in civilian protection and in the path to peace?"

This opened the floor for Alexandre Essomé, head of MONUSCO Public Information in Nord Kivu, to explain the essential elements of MONUSCO's mandate. MONUSCO, he said, only implements the mandate given by a resolution of the United Nations Security Council. He explained that MONUSCO is an implementing entity and not a decision-making one, and that as such, the Mission "cannot act outside the mandate given to it by the Security Council". And this mandate, he added, rests on four main pillars: civilian protection, security sector reform, child protection and stabilization.

Mr. Essome recalled that "in the past few years, the Security Council has adopted close to fifty resolutions concerning the Democratic Republic of Congo [...], a fact that demonstrates the international community's commitment and activism to address the situation in the DRC."

Abdourahmane Diacko, head of the MONUSCO Civil Affairs section, expounded on the mandate's Civilian Protection pillar, of which he presented the operational structure as follows: seventy-five civilian Congolese liaison officers provide the link with the population in all of Nord Kivu ; the community alert system helps ensure a fine-meshed warning network is in place, enabling swift intervention throughout the territory; and finally, Joint Protection Teams undertaken regular visits to various parts of Nord Kivu to speak to communities about crimes and potential threats in their areas.

These presentations were followed by a two-hour questions and answers session with the different speakers fielding questions from participants. Finally, all participating partners agreed to hold this type of forum with MONUSCO on a monthly basis.