Perception of Social Cohesion and Trust

This indicator aims to measure people's perception of social cohesion and trust, which are often seriously damaged after conflict.

Implies a questionnaire based on context specific statements referring to interactions and trust that are being affected negatively by conflict. So the statements have to be contextualised for each context. For each statement you ask if the respondant would be willing to do so, or if he/she agrees to do so.

Examples:

- Send children to the same school with children/teachers of an opposing group

- Shared grazing areas with an opposing group 

- Buy from/sell to people from opposing group

- Form friendships across conflict lines

- Participate in social events/celebrations of people from a different background (wedding parties, funerals)

NB You can also measure the experienced/real interactions. In that case the question should be if the respondant has sent children to the same school with children/teachers of an opposing group, has shared grazing areas with an opposing group etc. 

Gender (male/female)

Ethnic/religous/political background (depending on the type of conflict, and actors involved)

The best way to formulate the questions if through the development of bottom up indicators (or everyday peace indicators): how do people define social cohesion and trust? what do you see and what do people do when there is improved social cohesion and trust? These questions will lead to a long list of indicators that need to be reduced to the most important/relevant indicators or statements for this specific contexts. 

These statements or questions can then be used to measure social cohesion and trust.