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Conflict Research Consortium, University
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NGO Peacebuilding
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Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are doing even more peacebuilding activities than
are official governmental agencies. They have a long-term presence in many of the areas of
the world which are afflicted with intractable conflicts and are in an excellent position
to engage in a wide variety of peacebuilding activities. In addition to providing
humanitarian aid and mediation, they also are well positioned to engage in empowerment and
capacity-building among the local population and to get the population involved with the
adversary in a variety of joint activities. As is true with official governmental
peacebuilding efforts, the goal of NGO efforts is usually conflict reduction and/or
resolution, not just between official actors, but among ordinary citizens.
Many peacebuilding efforts, especially those carried out by the peace churches, such as
the Mennonite Conciliation Commission, try to foster reconciliation through apology and
forgiveness. Other organizations work for mutual understanding and prejudice reduction by
developing joint projects and confidence-building activities involving adversaries.
Projects and strategies vary as much as the people involved, but almost all encourage
increased contact and cooperation between people on all sides of the conflict. Examples of
NGO peacebuilding are listed below.
Links to Examples of NGO Peacebuilding:
Rebuilding Communities Devastated by War
This article describes several NGO peacebuilding projects operating on the community
level in Bosnia.
Bruce Hemmer -- Bottom-up Peace Building in
Bosnia
This article describes several other NGO peacebuilding projects in Bosnia.
- Bringing Croats and Muslims Together
- This is a short article describing NGO peacebuilding activities in the Balkans.
- Sustaining Peace in Angola
- This article describes the NGO role in Angola and the limitations the political
situation places on peacebuilding activities there.
- Mohamed Sahnoun -- Managing Conflicts in the
Post-Cold War Era
- This article examines military and humanitarian interventions in communal conflicts.
Sahnoun compares official peacebuilding with NGO efforts, observing that NGOs can often be
more successful at peacebuilding because they are more flexible in the kinds of activities
they can undertake.
- Harold Saunders -- Prenegotiation and
Circum-negotiation: Arenas of the Peace Process
- Saunders views peacemaking as including four activities: official governmental
negotiations, quasi-official negotiations such as track two diplomacy, public dialogue,
and civil society efforts. NGOs tend to be active in all of the last three, which,
Saunders argues are as essential to peacemaking as official diplomacy.
- Pamela Aall -- Nongovernmental Organizations
and Peacemaking
- This article discusses four roles that NGOS play in the peacemaking process:
humanitarian relief, monitoring of human rights abuses, providing early warning of
potentially violent conflicts, and conflict resolution. While NGOs can be effective in all
four of these areas, Aall warns that each of the four activities must be kept separate to
be effective.
-
Stephen Ryan--Peace-Building and
Conflict Transformation
In this article, Ryan discusses the role of various forms of peacebuilding in conflict
transformation.
Links to Outside Sources of Information
International
Guide To NGO Activities in Conflict Prevention and Resolution - December 1996
Mennonite Peacebuilding and
Conflict Transformation: A Cultural Analysis From the New Zealand Institute for
Dispute Resolution Archives
US Institute of Peace Special
Report-The U.S. Contribution to Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution in Africa
NGOs and the Peace
Process in Angola--United States Institute of Peace - Special Report
Reflections on
Mennonite Experiences in Building Peace
Nigeria's Muslim Women
in Peacebuilding
- Linda Groff and Paul
Smoker--Global Cultures of Peace
- This article focuses on alternative definitions of peace and the implications of those
definitions to actual peacebuilding activities.
Jan Øberg--Conflict
Mitigation in Reconstruction and Development
Swazi
Christians hold peace workshops for Hutu and Tutsi refugees
- Peace Building in a
Political Impasse Cross-Border Links in Ireland
- This is a summary of a book put out by the Centre for the Study of Conflict, University
of Ulster.
Elise
Boulding--Introduction to Rethinking Peace
Kevin Clements--Peace
Building and Conflict Transformation
Eirwen Harbottle--The
Two Faces of Peace Building
Alberto
L'Abate--Non-Violent Interposition in Armed Conflicts
Rebuilding Communities
Devastated by War
Links to Related Approaches:
Peacebuilding
- Official Efforts of UN and Regional Organizations
Trust Building
Reconciliation
Re-establish / Empower Traditional or New
Conflict-Management
Joint
Projects
Establishment
of Civil Society
Links to Related Problems:
Integrative
System Does Not Exist or Is Very Weak
Copyright ©1998 Conflict Research Consortium -- Contact: crc@colorado.edu