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Peacebuilding: more than a buzzword?

In Guatemala and Kenya, local NGOs attempt to end re-occurring violence and to promote reconciliation. Can their experiences help to produce an approach that will increase the capacity of local civil society networks to advocate for, implement and sustain peace? How should the impact of peacebuilding be assessed?

A report from International Alert draws on research with Kenyan and Guatemalan partners to suggest how to maximise the potential of peace and conflict impact assessment (PCIA). Arguing that the empowering potential of PCIA has yet to be realised – as it has mainly been used for top-down planning, management and control – it reports how southern NGOs could develop new skills to have greater influence on policy-making.

In both countries, the number of representative, broad-based NGOs is still small. Because they are subject to intimidation by officials and pressures to control and limit their mandates, peace-focused NGOs have difficulties in recruiting, training and keeping staff. They find it difficult to combine field-level development with political advocacy: making waves risks jeopardising their ability to continue working with communities. Funding comes and goes according to the fluctuating trendiness of peacebuilding. Funding is short-term, output-oriented and project-based, and allows little space for investment in capacity building.

Other points in the report include:

Failure to involve ordinary Guatemalans in the delicate negotiations which put an end to 36 years of civil war, together with the non-delivery of a visible peace, accounts for the widespread scepticism towards the political system in general.
Donors are complacent, adopting wait-and-see tactics, rather than empowering NGOs to pressure the Guatemalan government to further the peace accords via land reform, restructuring of the armed forces and recognition of the rights of indigenous people.
Guatemalan peace activists have emphasised how peace requires long-term nurturing and strengthening of accountable national institutions sensitive to human rights and equity issues.
Although donors are increasingly frustrated by the authoritarianism of Kenya’s Moi government and the high level of violence and insecurity, many remain wary of ‘politicising’ aid by funding directly large-scale peacebuilding projects, or assessing conventional development projects through a peacebuilding lens.
The holistic perspective applied by more progressive agencies – recognising that general violence undermines development – has provided Kenya with a group of conflict resolution organisations, some of whom are offering their services elsewhere in Africa.

International Alert paints a vision of how PCIA can be an approach for formulating participatory peacebuilding strategies while keeping its user-friendly flexibility to listen to different local visions of peace. It recommends:

broad-based debate to bring together politicians, academics, conflict resolution practitioners, business, religious and community leaders
ensuring that the views emerging from grassroots consultations on peacebuilding are fed into policy-making processes
developing training programmes for NGO staff in mediation, advocacy and research skills
developing effective links between local and northern NGOs to bring peace issues to the international agenda and exert pressure at different levels
strengthening of national umbrella organisations to enable NGOs to develop common positions and activities and make them efficient contributors for the government and the international community
professionalising the field of peacebuilding, raising its profile through reflection and standard setting so that peacebuilding is not mainstreamed away from donor agendas.

Source(s):
‘Peace and conflict impact assessment and NGO peacebuilding: experiences from Kenya and Guatemala’, International Alert, by Manuela Leonhardt, Patricia Ardon, Njeri Karuru and Andrew Sherriff, November 2002 Full document.

Funded by: Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs Department, DFID, International Alert

id21 Research Highlight: 15 July 2003

Further Information:
Development & Peacebuilding Programme
International Alert
346 Clapham Road
London SW9 9AP
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7627 6800
Fax: +44 (0)20 7627 6900
Contact the contributor: asherriff@international-alert.org

International Alert

Instituto de Ensenanza para el Desarrolllo Sostenible (IEPADES)
11 Evenida 14-66
Zona 10
Guatemala City 01010
Guatemala

Tel: +502 2 368 0219
Fax: +502 2 367 0287

The Centre for Conflict Research
PO Box 72321
Nairobi
Kenya

Tel: +254 2 230 338
Fax: +254 2 448 906

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