Concepts of Peacebuilding

Hello and welcome to this module on concepts of peacebuilding. My name is Nicole Carle and I'm a counsel for the Public International Law and Policy Group, or PILPG. Today I'm so pleased to welcome Dr. Gregory Noone, who is the Executive Director of PILPG, and joining us today to discuss several concepts of peacebuilding.

How is peacebuilding defined?

To start us off, can you describe how peacebuilding is generally defined?

 Yeah, that we should always start with the beginning, right? Start with the definition. So, so peace building is a concept that's largely associated with managing, mitigating, and resolving the central drivers of conflict through nonviolent means.

So, it encompasses a multidimensional approach that addresses economic, social, and political issues, while emphasizing the importance of inclusivity of under-representative groups, relationship building, and reconciliation. So, effective peacebuilding often includes the following concepts. It involves multiple sectors, such as economic, political, religious, security, and justice institutions.

It impacts multiple community layers, so local, regional, and national. It focuses on relationship building and encourages inclusive civic participation. And it works in tandem with reconciliation activities. And finally, it includes results from multiple complimentary and interrelated efforts that aim to promote peace both immediately and gradually.

So this means that several peace building initiatives, even the smallest ones, that build on and reinforce each other, can have a meaningful and large scale long term impact.

Typologies of Peacebuilding

Thanks for giving us that overview and getting us warmed up. I do want to get into a little bit more detail. So, can you go on to discuss the different typologies that are involved in peace building?

 Sure. And, and there are multiple typologies of peace building in conflict and post-conflict scenarios that can be delineated by factors such as the conflict's nature, the degree of international involvement, and the state of the economic and political development.

So among the myriad of typologies, three principle ones stand out, which we'll discuss. , in turn  they're self-enforcing peace building, mediated peace building. in conflictual peace building. In the context of self enforcing peace building, conflicts culminate in decisive victories. often leading to territorial displacement of the defeated party.

The aftermath witnesses broad consensus on the foundational elements of the post war order. Instances like successful separations and civil wars, exemplified by East Timor, fall into this category. In these contexts, The successor authority claims a strong mandate to institute democratic and legitimizing structures, rendering the role of the international aid community predominantly secondary and supportive in consolidating peace.

So it's truly a self enforcing process. The second concept is mediated peace building. Conflicts result in a standstill, concluding with a compromise of some kind. In these instances, post war transition modalities are embedded in the peace agreement, signifying at least a minimal consensus on the constitutive issues of the post war order.

Despite this, situations such as these are usually characterized by lingering mutual distrust, fragility in the agreement, potential spoilers, and maintained military forces. Some examples include Bosnia, Mozambique, Cambodia. In such scenarios, sustained and focused international attention becomes imperative to uphold the peace process.

Assessing the implementation of governance measures outlined in the agreement is often crucial in the context of an uncertain peace. with considerations about delaying elections until the peace process is firmly established. And finally, the third one is conflictual peace building. Wars conclude with the military victory of one side, yet the peace settlement excludes the defeated party and or associated populations.

So the root causes of the conflict remain unresolved, lacking an authoritative framework for rebuilding the society. Afghanistan in the post Taliban era serves as a pertinent example here. In this context, the term post conflict is misleading. As the conflict remains embedded in the post war situation, addressing the unresolved political issues becomes critical to enhancing security and fostering conditions for economic recovery.

While there's no ready made formula present, one guiding principle emerges. And that governance intervention should be chosen based on their potential impact on the unresolved political conflicts. This is the only way you'll get to a durable peace.

Key Principles for Peacebuilding

Moving  into application of these typologies, what key principles should peace builders keep in mind when planning for and engaging in peace building efforts?

 There are six key principles that help foster effective peacebuilding in a state. And these principles can contribute to both short and long term peacebuilding goals that seek to promote change at the individual and community levels, as well as promote positive cultural, social, and institutional changes.

 So the first one is peacebuilding should  be multidimensional. Effective peacebuilding involves multiple sectors and impacts multiple community layers. This is because multidimensional peacebuilding enables stakeholders to better address multiple drivers in areas of conflict. A multidimensional approach involves looking at the conflict from several different angles.

For instance, considering how different communities are impacted and are related to the conflict.

The second idea   is interdependency, and this is a key factor in effective peacebuilding. Even if they're implemented by independent entities in civil society, peacebuilding efforts can benefit from being interconnected.

This will allow peacebuilders to build off each other's work, thus increasing the impact of individual peacebuilding efforts. And this can occur through deliberate coordination and cooperation, such as through coalitions or, or more informally, by simply being aware of the other peacebuilding efforts that are occurring and trying to complement them rather than compete with them.  

 Third is a in peace building efforts should factor in long term sustainability. And we talked a lot about sustainability in this area. Peace building can have some immediate effects, but it's generally more of a gradual process that produces long term outcomes. So. In addition to resolving one conflict that can be instrumental in preventing a resurgence of another conflict years later, or even decades later, but efforts at peacebuilding should therefore balance short term goals with the long term goals that are not only responsive to the ongoing conflict, but also may be aimed at preventing a future conflict.

Fourth is the effective peacebuilding   must be targeted. Every conflict, even if occurring within the same state, is unique. While it is important to draw from historical examples and historical experience and identify useful parallels, Peacebuilding efforts should ultimately be specifically tailored to address the root causes of that particular conflict.

Conflict assessments should be periodically reconsidered to ensure that peacebuilding efforts to prevent future conflicts are indeed proactively addressing factors that may trigger a resurgence of violence into keeping abreast of changes in the political or social dynamics.  

The fifth principle of effective peacebuilding is institutional impact.

These efforts that seek to enhance the capacity of state institutions to support peace often enable sustainable and high impact peacebuilding. This involves engaging in peacebuilding that facilitate, excuse me, that facilitates open and inclusive public spaces that are respected by the state. In addition to promoting state mechanisms and programs that support both immediate and long term conflict resolution and peace building goals.

State involvement and engagement in peace building can greatly enhance the magnitude and sustainability of its impact. But when not implemented effectively, institutional participation can sometimes pose the risk of being a hindrance to the overall process. This is why it's important to identify what tier of government and officials may be the most effective partners and implementers, as well as what phase of the peacebuilding process is the best time for state officials or agencies to step in.    

Finally, the sixth principle, is that peace building efforts must be locally driven. Local actors are the best, are in the best position to identify what is driving a conflict, what needs to be addressed to manage, mitigate, and resolve that conflict, in addition to preventing resurgence of violence later on.

Locally driven peace building efforts will be the most sustainable by encouraging greater buy in and ownership of key stakeholders. Locally driven efforts are also likely to be more immediately responsive to changes affecting the conflict. As with other peace building efforts, locally driven efforts should be inclusive, promoting participation from all sectors of society at all times.

Identifying short and long term goals and objectives

Thank you, Dr. Noone. These six principles and considerations are clearly so important for peace builders to keep in mind. Moving forward,   📍 how can mediators identify both the short and long term goals and objectives of their peacebuilding efforts? And do you have any examples that you can draw from?

 Yeah, this, this is, this is important because peacebuilding is typically a long term process.

With short term benchmarks, meaning that short term objectives provide a foundation for and help advance the long term change. So, both are equally important. So, for instance,   a short term goal might be to end the immediate violence and open or facilitate dialogue between opposing sides.  the long term goal could be promoting structural, societal, political, and even cultural change that gets us to a durable peace.

 So short and long term objectives can both impact individuals and communities in addition to promoting change at the local, regional, or national levels. So peacebuilders don't have to design objectives to immediately impact all these levels. However, the objectives can be designed to focus on just creating change at discrete levels.

So let me give you an example. An objective can focus on the local community level, such as a single village. So when thinking about these objectives, it's important to consider what interests are more short term, and what activities can be implemented to accomplish these immediate goals. So specifically, examples for short term interest could include, , mediating land dispute issues that if unresolved are going to erupt in communities attacking each other, or maybe it's negotiating a local ceasefire between armed groups.

So it's equally important to consider how these short term objectives may feed into more of a long term change. So, for instance, in addition to helping end the violence in a particular area, negotiating a local ceasefire between armed groups may stabilize an area of the state and eventually help enable national level efforts to end violence.

So this stability may eventually foster an environment where security sector reform or durable peace process can occur. So when we're considering long term objectives, it's important to think about activities that can be immediately implemented. to advance those objectives over time. So let me give you an example.

If a long term objective is to promote a system of government that's inclusive of women, minorities the activities that can be immediately implemented to foster that big structural change should be considered. So some examples could be conducting educational outreach to increase communities awareness of the benefits of having inclusive and diverse institutions.

Or they could be consulta consultations to gather recommendations for what structural changes should be made. Or, or maybe it's an advocacy campaign to provide specific legislative recommendations.

Inclusion in Peacebuilding

Staying on this example of diversity and inclusion, can you speak more to the role of inclusion in peacebuilding and why it's so important to involve marginalized groups in the process?

 Yeah, and the short answer is it's important because we want to be successful. Peacebuilding efforts should be holistic, not only in terms of timeline, but also in terms of the diversity of individuals involved. So accordingly, peacebuilding efforts should be inclusive of all genders and underrepresented groups, both in terms of their views, ideas, and input into the peacebuilding process, as well as their.

participation. See, the participation of underrepresented and marginalized groups and peace building activities are probably going to benefit us in the long run when we have a later political transition, because it's going to normalize participation from all sectors of society, thus encouraging their participation during the transition.

Especially in the decision making process, but it's also going to build trust, which is especially important for these previously marginalized groups who may be reluctant to trust and work closely with groups that previously discriminated against them or persecuted them or refused to share power. And by producing greater individual and community buy in, if more of the population is invested and feels that there's space for them to engage with the political process, then the political transition is more likely to be successful.

Transitions that lack popular support and legitimacy tend not to be sustainable. And groups that don't feel like there's a space for them to engage within this political process may reject their transition. And may even resort to violence to achieve their goals. So to be inclusive of all genders and underrepresented or marginalized groups, peace building efforts must be tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of these groups as well as the dynamics between the groups.

So this may include being attentive to fostering reconciliation and mediation between groups whose relations have deteriorated. Furthermore, effective peace building typically also considers the different barriers faced by marginalized groups to participating in conflict management resolution, as well as social, economic, and political processes.

So at times, existing social barriers and inequalities can be drivers of conflict or exasperate their effects.  

Working with Key Stakeholders and Allies

Thanks for elaborating on that. And I do have one last question, and I want to stick to process.   So in addition to these marginalized groups, how should mediators work with other key stakeholders and allies within their peace building efforts?

For peacebuilders efforts to be successful, it's critical for peacebuilders to leverage opportunities for collaboration and coordination. To do so, peacebuilders should keep track of the various stakeholders and identify allies to collaborate with.   So the stakeholders are, of course, these are individuals or groups that have a stake or an interest in the conflict.

Examples could be victims of human rights violations, leaders of armed groups, civil society organizations, even foreign governments. So not all stakeholders are going to be allies. But before thinking about who could be an ally, it's really important to consider who may have a stake in perpetuating the conflict or in ending the conflict, in addition to how it ends and what happens afterwards.

  Whereas your allies are valuable because they can serve as partners when implementing peacebuilding programs or activities. You can coordinate their activities to ensure independent peacebuilding efforts reinforce each other and expand the scope and impact of common short and long term objectives.

They can also share valuable information and limited resources, such as through the resources of the funding pool , or sharing key contacts. Allies working as a coalition can also operate in a similar manner. So a coalition of CSOs, civil society organizations, or government officials may have several key overarching peacebuilding objectives for long term change in the state, like the, , inclusive, diverse, and fair system of government, and a state that respects the freedom of expression, assembly, and the press.

So to accomplish these long term objectives, the coalition may strategically partner on implementing select programs and initiatives, even if they don't always agree on everything. 

So important. Well, that concludes this overview of peace building concepts. Thank you for those watching this session and I hope it was useful for you as you familiarize yourselves with different concepts and components of peace building. And thank you very much, Dr. Noone, for your time.