Researchers at the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) of the University of Navarra have obtained a grant from the Ramón Areces Foundation scholarship to study the extent to which radio is effective in getting armed groups to change their behavior and their combatants to reintegrate into society.

For two years, Alex Armand and Joseph Gomes will analyze how to convince someone who has already taken up arms to give them up. First, they intend to measure the effectiveness of the messages in increasing desertions and encouraging people to generate income from peaceful activities, as an alternative to those obtained from violent activities. They also seek to measure the impact of these messages on the general strategy of the armed group .

Radio Outreach: Desertion Messages and Armed Group Behavior will focus on the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an extremist organization operating mainly in northern Uganda, involved in one of Africa's largest armed conflicts. "Radio desertion messages have been employee there since the turn of the century," explain Armand and Gomes. 

The insurgency in Uganda

They note that FM radio has been used to combat armed groups, such as the LRA, in remote areas because of its ability to reach long distances and its low cost. The researchers will explore the success of programs such as 'Go Home', initiated by radios in northern Uganda in the early years of the 21st century.

This program includes interviews with combatants who have surrendered, personal messages from families or community members, news about the conflict, and logistical information on how to safely surrender. It also has goal to communicate the credibility of the general amnesty law for the LRA in Uganda.

Alex Armand and Joseph Gomes aim to determine whether dropout messages have contributed to reducing violence and, if so, to explore which have worked and which have not.

The Navarra Center for International Development is part of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), the research center in Humanities and social sciences of the University of Navarra. The NCID seeks promote viable solutions to situations of extreme poverty in countries at development. Through applied research , it delves into chronic social problems associated with poverty, such as corruption and violence.