Abstract
Faith-based actors are often recognised as contributors to both conflict and peace. However, their work to prevent violent conflict, rather than bring an end to or recover from it, is largely unexplored. This is despite the growth of conflict prevention as a global social norm and field of practice. Based on collaborative research with faith groups and organisations in Nigeria, the Solomon Islands and Zanzibar (Tanzania), this paper examines faith-based forms of violent conflict prevention. It argues that faith-based approaches exist on a spectrum, from instinctive and ad hoc initiatives run by individuals and local places of worship to large-scale, systematised interventions led by global faith-based development organisations. Yet, while faith-based approaches to violent conflict prevention vary in form and function, they are consistent and distinctive in their emphasis on building resilient relationships at the local level, modelling forms of prevention embedded within local culture and that recognise the emotional and spiritual dimensions of transformative change. Faith-based approaches offer insights valuable to the wider conflict prevention field, which is increasingly critiqued for its liberal underpinnings and emphasis on technical and technological solutionism. Lessons emerge for others implementing prevention programmes, who could adapt elements of the unhurried, values-led, relationally sensitive approach demonstrated by some faith-based actors, albeit within their own structural limitations. Policymakers should support such adaptations and expand their view of prevention to explicitly include faith-based forms of activity, as to do otherwise risks missing opportunities and reproducing existing failures.
Highlights
From the atrocities of Boko Haram and Daesh to the state-sponsored persecution of Myanmar’sRohingya, religiously framed violence dominates headlines and plagues lives
While faith-based approaches to violent conflict prevention vary in form and function, they are consistent and distinctive in their emphasis on building resilient relationships at the local level, modelling forms of prevention embedded within local culture and that recognise the emotional and spiritual dimensions of transformative change
The project analysed the experiences of faith groups working to prevent conflict in Nigeria and the Solomon Islands through interviews, focus groups and participant observation at meetings and workshops, exploring what is distinctive about faith-based approaches
Summary
From the atrocities of Boko Haram and Daesh to the state-sponsored persecution of Myanmar’s. The growth in faith-based peacebuilding has coincided with the development of conflict prevention as a distinct global norm and field of practice The latter provides a framework to consider the preventative contributions of faith-based actors, but so far, the literature on the two subjects remains largely separate. This contrasts with the wealth of literature on religion and countering violent extremism or religion and atrocity prevention, which both have a proactive approach to addressing violence Recognising this knowledge gap, the article integrates the literature on conflict prevention, liberal peace and faith-based peacebuilding and analyses the implications of faith-based initiatives for the prevention agenda and liberal peace more generally. The final section concludes, reflecting on the extent to which faith-based initiatives can add value and identifying pathways for future research
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