Community Peacebuilding Research Articles

Early childhood parenting programs and community peacebuilding behaviors: A case study from postconflict Liberia.

Early childhood parenting programs and community peacebuilding behaviors: A case study from postconflict Liberia.

Toward an integrated approach for mental health and psychosocial support and peacebuilding in North-East Nigeria: programme description and preliminary outcomes from 'Counselling on Wheels'.

Despite theoretical support for including mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) with peacebuilding, few programmes in conflict-affected regions fully integrate these approaches. To describe and assess preliminary outcomes of the Counselling on Wheels programme delivered by the NEEM Foundation in the Borno State of North-East Nigeria. We first describe the components of the Counselling on Wheels programme, including education and advocacy for peace and social cohesion through community peacebuilding partnerships and activities, and an MHPSS intervention open to all adults, delivered in groups of eight to ten people. We then conducted secondary analysis of data from 1550 adults who took part in the MHPSS intervention, who provided data at baseline and 1-2 weeks after the final group session. Vulnerability to violent extremism was assessed with a locally developed 80-item scale. Symptoms of common mental disorders were assessed with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale (PTSD-8). Data were analysed through a mixed-effect linear regression model, accounting for clustering by community and adjusted for age and gender. After taking part in group MHPSS, scores fell for depression (-5.8, 95% CI -6.7 to -5.0), stress (-5.5, 95% CI -6.3 to -4.6), post-traumatic stress disorder (-2.9, 95% CI -3.4 to -2.4) and vulnerability to violent extremism (-44.6, 95% CI -50.6 to -38.6). The Counselling on Wheels programme shows promise as a model for integrating MHPSS with community peacebuilding activities in this conflict-affected region of Africa.

Photography and everyday peacebuilding. Examining the impact of photographing everyday peace in Colombia

ABSTRACT Arts-based peacebuilding has gained attention, but evidence and research of its impact is fragmented and, in particular, the relationship between photography and peace is underexplored. This article examines photovoice as a tool for supporting everyday and community peace in conflict-affected communities. It identifies four ways that everyday peace indicator photovoice projects in Colombia bolstered community peace: by engendering healing, building territorial identity, enabling intergenerational dialogue, and catalysing action. These impacts emerged as photovoice built on enabling factors, extending existing community peacebuilding capacities, concerns and interventions. Reflecting on the constraints and tensions around working with photography in security-sensitive environments, we propose that participatory photography makes up a vital component of the peace photography genre. We argue that the careful, strategic harnessing of photovoice, and the visualisation of everyday peace, creates opportunities for raising the voices of conflict-affected communities, building shared imaginaries and nurturing dialogue, healing and action.

Study on Peace-Building in Southeast Asia from the Perspective of Normative Localization —— Based on the Comparison Between Myanmar and Cambodia

This paper attempts to take Myanmar and Cambodia as examples to explore the consequences of constructive interaction between the international community and Southeast Asian countries after the cold war. After the end of the Cold War, Southeast Asia encountered two regional conflicts and crises of global concern. We finds that for Myanmar and Cambodia, the ability of political elites is the key to leading regional and global peace. The ability of political elites not only determines the process of external norms, but also affects the changes of regional norms. As far as Cambodia is concerned, through cooperation with the United Nations and ASEAN, it has rapidly rebuilt its political authority and effectively internalized the international community's peacebuilding norms. Therefore, Cambodia can improve its national capacity and stability after the emergence of political authority. As far as Myanmar is concerned, after the end of the cold war, the political authority still exists in Myanmar, thus maintaining a certain degree of national stability. With the outbreak of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar in 2015, Myanmar's original national construction gradually began to collapse. On the one hand, Myanmar cannot internalize the international community's peacebuilding norms. On the other hand, due to the decline of political authority, various internal forces began to struggle with each other, which ultimately led to the failure of the country. For the dissemination of international norms, whether in Cambodia or Myanmar, the localization of external norms requires the cooperation of the political authorities to effectively prevent conflicts.

From Violent Victims to Emancipatory Agency of Peace: Exploring Female Jirga as Local Gendered Peace Formation and Community Peacebuilding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

For years, the insecurity and violence against women in many parts of Pakistan have magnified the danger of the prevalent worldview of strong and protective men. In contrast, women are weak and protected by men. Inevitable victimisation and powerless women are counterproductive since women are central to the community's household institution. This paper explores local community peacebuilding initiatives of women's first Jirga by a local activist Tabassum Adnan in Pakistan's Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Exploring women's Jirga as an agency of regional and gendered peace formation in a salient patriarchal Pakhtun worldview underscores women's security and gendered Peace perspective in recognising the need to consider the missing systemic and unpeaceful change and transformation in contemporary Pakistan and South Asia. Adopting qualitative methods of Feminist Peace research unravels the potential and pitfalls of how women can embark upon alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) when patriarchal conceptualisations of conflict resolution prevent their active participation. Findings show multidimensional links between local community peace and global systemic and peaceful transformation of international relations (IR). Recognising the transformative roles of women in overcoming GBV is a critical transnational shift from the past and minimal human rights protection of women to the present and maximal recognition of women as emancipatory agents of peace.

The Role of Higher Education as a Catalyst of Peacebuilding in Conflict Affected Regions: The Case Study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after FATA Amalgamation

Purpose: The study critically reviews the educational structure, policies, emphasis, application of educational goals, achievements from rural to Higher education and protecting measures enabling the youth to get easy access to education. Since the creation of Pakistan emphasis laid down on the free and compulsory education for all but failed to address the nascent challenges surfaced in the form of violent extremism, sectarianism, intolerance, and lingual discrepancies. Although the literacy rate has been increased with the passage of time but the quality of education and practical application remains under darkness.
 Methodology: To evaluate the educational targets and achievements of the elementary and secondary education in former FATA. Historical method of research was adopted and Education policies from the dawn of freedom 1947 to 2010 were studied. Moreover, The provincial initiative of Educational sector plan (ESP) and its practical outcomes were critically analyzed.
 Findings: This research in its findings proposed that structure and curriculum of higher education be revisited and expanded promptly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) particularly within the newly merged areas for the restoration of social justice, cultural diversity, educational growth, state-building and peace building community.
 Implications: The research addresses that after the amalgamation of Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa how these conflicts affected areas can be reconstructed or rebuild through higher education. The research has focused on the universal mechanism of peacebuilding education in post conflict areas keeping in view the three approaches namely, Stability, Restructuring and peacebuilding through higher education.

Perpetual Peacebuilding: A New Paradigm to Move Beyond the Linearity of Liberal Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT This article will introduce the ‘perpetual peacebuilding’ paradigm. Academics and policy-makers have accepted that the linearity of the liberal peace neither reflects, nor should it drive, the tumult of peacebuilding. Nevertheless, practitioners have made merely cosmetic changes to their approaches. Within the perpetual peacebuilding paradigm, peacebuilding is envisioned as an ever-developing process manifested in a series of (re-)negotiations of the social and political contract. Notions of success and failure and concepts such as ‘tracks’ and ‘peace agreements’ are abandoned, and peace is both utopian and subjective. Lastly, the peacebuilding community is called upon to display greater courage and creativity.

The Efficacy of Community Peacebuilding in African Communities: Case Studies From Nigeria and Zimbabwe

This article discusses the efficacy of community-based peacebuilding efforts to develop sustainable peace in conflict-torn communities. Using participatory action research (PAR) is a powerful means of developing sustainable solutions to a conflict: It provides the means to test peace theories and draw upon a community’s knowledge and strengths in order to develop interventions. The knowledge gained can be lost if not understood within national or regional contexts, particularly if there is divergence between interests that can destroy community-based peacebuilding accomplishments. Holistic approaches facilitate sustainable peace and foster learning applicable to other situations. Two case studies, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, identified broad principles that potentially can be applied in the development of policies and practices. In the Nigerian case, two communities had experienced years of conflict. The PAR component was based on participatory dialogue. In the Zimbabwe case, political conflict was resolved through the development of a mutually beneficial peace garden.

Проблемні питання сучасного миробудівництва: дискусії та перспективи

Представлено результати аналізу проблемних питань та дискусій навколо традиційних моделей миробудівництва, які мають місце у світовому англомовному миротворчому просторі. 
 На основі огляду сучасних українських досліджень у сфері миробудівництва охарактеризовано її складники та констатовано «зародковий» стан розвитку цієї галузі. 
 Висвітлено широкий спектр сучасних критичних поглядів на онтологічні основи та прикладні моделі побудови ліберального і постліберального миру, а також проблему гібридної методології. 
 Зазначено, що на сьогодні головною «проблемною зоною», на думку багатьох авторів, є зона встановлення балансу між зовнішніми впливами та пов’язаними з ними універсальними моделями побудови миру, які ґрунтуються на ідеях лібералізму, і місцевими традиціями, цінностями та уявленнями, які відображені в локальних формах управління і традиційних основах співіснування (проблема «ліберального-місцевого»). 
 Підкреслено, що головним проблемним питанням у сфері миротворчої діяльності є: «Чого місцеві жителі хочуть насправді?». 
 Також розглянуто інші аспекти дискусії з проблемних питань застосування моделі миробудівництва за принципом «згори донизу», які торкаються безпосереднього втручання міжнародних донорів у роботу місцевих «агентів миру» та побічних конфліктогенних ефектів надання міжнародної допомоги. 
 Означено проблему недостатнього розуміння та аналізу конфлікту в миробудівництві та державотворенні, описано моделі «критичної гібридності» та політичного значення «подій» і «не-подій». 
 Зроблено загальний висновок про те, що на цей час у пред­став­ників світової миротворчої спільноти немає універсальних рецептів та підходів щодо розбудо­ви постконфліктного миру. 
 Акцентовано увагу на необхідності критичного осмислення наявно­го світового досвіду миробудівництва з метою створення української моделі розбудови миру.

The Role of Community-based Organizations in Addressing Social Equity among Deprived Sections in the Conflict Vulnerable Areas in Karnataka, India

Aim: This study assessed the social equity situations in conflict vulnerable areas, and examined the role of 40 community-based organizations (CBOs) spread across the four sub-regions in Karnataka targeting societal change towards social equity.
 Study Design: The study employed the survey research design with a sample of 420 beneficiaries of CBO-implemented programs and focus group discussion the officials of each of the CBOs.
 Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Karnataka, India and data gathering was conducted from July 2019 to September 2019
 Methodology: Data for the study were obtained through the use of survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using chi-square test were done in analysing the data.
 Results: The primary role of CBOs, based on evidence from their vision and mission, is to bridge the social equity gap between marginalized and vulnerable communities and the mainstream society through program initiatives and education. These programs were mainly on skills training, child rights protection, and with other major concerns enveloped as social justice and fairness operationalized through access to livelihood, access to education, participation in the political and cultural life, access to self-determination, and peace building community. Besides the preventive roles played by CBOs, they also provide rehabilitation for the exploited and abused in society.
 Conclusion: The CBOs in consultation with relevant government agencies, should organize programs in unifying the cultural and religious diversities, widen the scope of their educational programs, and provide the beneficiaries with specialized educational programs along with their skills training to qualify them to bid for contracts in government and non-governmental organizations since there are still visible evidence of social inequalities despite the extensive implementation and awareness education provided thus far.

Perils of conversation: #MeToo and opportunities for peacebuilding

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the opportunities for future organizational and leadership research presented by positioning dialogue related to the #MeToo movement within a peacebuilding agenda. The #MeToo movement raised public consciousness about the pervasiveness of sexual assault and harassment in schools, workplaces and other institutions by an international social media campaign. However, subsequent discussions are often charged with hostility and outrage that result in divisiveness within workplaces and other settings that can further silence about these issues. The authors argue a community peacebuilding framework can create space to have difficult conversations to further the efforts of the #MeToo movement. Design/methodology/approach The authors will discuss the implications of a peacebuilding framework by the discussion of a case study in a rural setting to highlight the ways in which community conversations necessary to further the goals of the #MeToo movement. Findings A grassroots community peacebuilding framework can present opportunities for victims, offenders, family members and the community to voice expressions harms experienced and to enable processes of accountability. Promotion of a positive relational peace includes opportunities for education, skill development and conflict resolution that are healing and transformative for individuals and communities. Research limitations/implications The systemic social and cultural change required to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault must happen within face-to-face relationships within community dialogue. Practical implications The authors argue a critical relational peace lens offers an emancipatory framework that can initiate change from the bottom up to facilitate social healing and further the efforts of the #MeToo movement. Social implications Grassroots peacebuilding invites a relational peace established by dialogue within communities. This dialogue is often not easy but is recognized as essential to establishing trust, resolving conflict and fostering community integrity. Originality/value In this paper, the authors offer a community peacebuilding framework to provide skill development and a vision necessary to host difficult conversations to inform the next wave of the #MeToo movement.

Essential Strategies for Community Peacebuilding Training: Lessons From the Field

Essential Strategies for Community Peacebuilding Training: Lessons From the Field

Imagining a Non-Violent World "The Be the Peace, Make a Change Project": A Rural Community Peacebuilding Initiative to End Gender-Based Violence

This article will profile the innovative community engagement process initiated by the "Be the Peace, Make a Change" project to end gender-based violence in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, and conclude with lessons learned. These lessons were summarized as "headlines" to imagine a future with new narratives for interpersonal relationships. This project was a three-year grassroots initiative of Second Story Women’s Centre, funded by Status of Women Canada. It engaged the rural communities of Lunenburg County to develop a coordinated response to violence against women and girls. It focused on the engagement of all genders, youth, and adults in exploring and implementing the visions, hopes and actions identified as priorities by the community within a peacebuilding framework. Community was broadly defined to include: survivors of relationship violence; professional service providers in healthcare, community services, policing and justice; municipal and provincial government; community-based services; educators and schools; clergy; and any interested citizens. The need to alter the cultural and social roots that sustain violence was recognized. A focus on building trusting partnerships both locally and provincially, inclusion of men and boys, engaging schools and youth and the justice systems, as well as survivors were hallmarks of the project.

The efficacy of traditional cultural practices in the rehabilitation of victims of torture in Nigeria's Niger Delta.

Traditional methods of purification and healing carried out by healers and priests are of utmost importance for the mental and spiritual rehabilitation of victims of torture and perpetrators. The efficacy of traditional practices in the rehabilitation of victims of torture in Nigeria is examined. Data is derived from 60 interviews with key informants and eight Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) conducted with victims of torture, youth militias, priests, secret cults, community leaders, women leaders, youth leaders, security agencies, and others, in local communities in the Niger Delta states of Bayelsa and Ilaje, Ondo. By means of reconciliation rituals, both the perpetrators and the victims are re-integrated into the community. The mental healing of victims, who were deeply traumatized by the experiences of torture during violent conflict, is an aspect of community peacebuilding that is at least as important as material reconstruction. Traditional forms of justice and reconciliation that can address the psychosocial trauma of victims of torture may be helpful in the rehabilitation process. This paper suggests that healing and reconciliation rituals have been an essential component of rehabilitation processes in many local communities in the Niger Delta region. International, regional and national actors and institutions must recognize the cultural importance of such rituals and their potential relevance and significance for victims of torture, but their complex dynamics need to be better understood in order to safely and effectively apply them programmatically to achieve reconciliation and rehabilitation outcomes.

Peacebuilding Interventions

This article examines the perceptions and experiences of 120 participants interviewed in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties in 2010 regarding community peacebuilding, and the future of community-based projects. The respondents shared their thoughts on the projects and program initiatives funded by the European Union Peace and Reconciliation or Peace III Fund and the International Fund for Ireland. They discussed the impacts of external aid on the community peacebuilding process as well as the long-term sustainability of projects. This study explores the narratives of community leaders and program development officers from Derry and the Border Counties. The findings emphasize that while the participants noted that the external aid contributed to promoting community peacebuilding, there is a lot more to be addressed in terms of cross-community interaction. Additionally, there is an uncertainty regarding the sustainability of many project initiatives once the funds end. As a result of such insecurity, there is a concern regarding the stability of peace in the region.

Emotion and Deception, Jewish-Arab Community Peace Building, Restorative Justice and Communication, and Anger and Attribution: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Conceptual Reviews

Emotion and Deception, Jewish-Arab Community Peace Building, Restorative Justice and Communication, and Anger and Attribution: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Conceptual Reviews

Hakamat and Peacebuilding 2004-2012

Five years after the secession of South Sudan from Sudan, peace building activities in Sudan have not yet come to an end and violent conflicts in Sudan have not stopped – rather, they intensified – while international attention has shifted to other regions of the world. Darfur remains a crisis region, and the southern, eastern, and western edges of the Sudan are still conflict-ridden, even increasingly so. This article looks into how peacebuilding projects engaged Hakamat – female singers and poets – to spread the message of peace between 2004 and 2012. This international involvement was influenced by two things: the image of Hakamat among the riverine North Sudanese and the international peacebuilding community as `troublemakers´; and the fact that they contradict the image of women as passive victims of violent conflicts. It was for these reasons that the Hakamat became a `hot topic´ with organizations working in Darfur. Although the issue was not prominently reported in the newspapers, the organizations working on peacebuilding in Sudan worked keenly with the women singers and poets known as `Hakamat´, who are said to influence the violent conflict in Darfur through their songs and poetry. The Hakamat perhaps first gained the attention of these organizations as potential peacebuilding actors and participants in peacebuilding workshops because of their `extraordinary´ role as women who can influence issues that were regarded as `male affairs´: that is, conflict and violence. Equally, the Government of Sudan also sought to involve the Hakamat in its political processes in Darfur since the late 1980s.This article is based on an unpublished Diploma thesis (Adam 2013), the research for which was carried out in the Greater Khartoum area between August 2012 and April 2013.

Smart Phones and Social Bonds: Communication Technology and Inter-Ethnic Cooperation in Kenya

The expansion of access to mobile phones in the developing world has provided new opportunities for development and peacebuilding institutions to reach communities, and for communities to develop local development and peacebuilding solutions. Kenya has seen a particularly high concentration of programming geared towards using mobile phones for banking, election monitoring and violence prevention, using crowdsourcing methods to collect and share information. While there have been a number of notable crowdsourcing programmes that have been successful at preventing violence, there remains limited theorisation in the peacebuilding community about why these successes occurred. Using Fearon and Laitin's (American Political Science Review 90 [1996]: 715–795) models of inter-ethnic cooperation, intra-group organising and inter-group policing, we explore whether success in crowdsourcing for violence prevention is a function of direct intra-community organising, or is an outcome of previously unavailable information being broadcast on traditional media such as radio.

Transformative Peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

This article critiques the potential success of the Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework for the drc and the Region—signed on February 24, 2013—against the backdrop of the 1999 Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, which failed to end the Second Congo War. The 1999 Agreement failed because its overall design, coupled with the socio-political climate in the region at the time, resulted in a ‘no war, no peace’ scenario. These failures were furthered by the overall inability of the international peacebuilding community to design and implement a peace strategy in the drc that aligned with the needs of the Congolese people. If the 2013 Framework is to succeed, what is required is a transformation of the peace process, which will incorporate the Congolese civil society, avoid restrictive timelines, and focus on securing realistic commitments. By critically analyzing both the 1999 Agreement and the broader conflict-resolution and peacebuilding processes, international peace practitioners can learn from the situation in the drc and use the revised peace model this article outlines to promote true and lasting peace in regional conflicts across the developing world.

Localizing Transformation: Addressing Clan Feuds in Mindanao through Pcia

A Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA) was instrumental in advancing peace and development in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) communities of the Philippines. It is a region beset with organised violence due to long-running family and clan feuds known as ridos. This violence has not only caused suffering to the local population in terms of loss of life but has also greatly impacted on its social, economic and cultural life. The PCIA provided a process whereby the community, especially the feuding families, assumed responsibility for rido-related acts and committed themselves to settling the conflict. In the process, PCIA has facilitated not only ‘community-building’ but also the ‘capacity-building’ of local people wherey they have assumed full responsibility for their peace and development. Moreover, through the PCIA process, women's role, despite being ‘invisible’ in this deeply patriarchal society, proved to be an essential component of community peacebuilding.