Whose peace are peacebuilders working for? Should peacebuilders be working to transform or reinforce the status quo? This paper from the Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management argues that the impact of the peacebuilding community has been stunted by factors including lack of clarity about values, deference towards political leaders, organisational rivalry and lack of competent practitioners.
The peacebuilding field is hampered by a lack of transformative work. This is work which seeks to change the underlying dynamics which cause violence to erupt in a society in the first place. International peacebuilding organisations also seem to be weak, ineffective and poor partners to their local colleagues.
The peacebuilding community has achieved much since the late 1980s and developed distinctive and innovative methods of analysis. Over 1000 civil society organisations now work explicitly on peace and conflict issues worldwide. International networks have emerged linking individuals and organisations on a regional and global basis. However, the field is hampered by a number of factors including:
- Lack of clarity about values and goals: one of peacebuilding’s core beliefs is that peace requires far-reaching change. However there is a real question about whether this value informs practice in the field.
- The focus on what authors call technical peacebuilding, which aims to make a practical difference in a specific domain, and not on transformative peacebuilding which aims at fundamental change.
- Excessively deferential attitudes to those holding political power. While grassroots organisations tend to challenge vested interests and power structures, international organisations tend to defer to those in power.
- Organisational rivalry. Lack of cooperation between peacebuilding organisations holds the community back. Environmental and peace issues are interconnected and should not be pursued in isolation.
- Shortage of competent practitioners. There are many basic training courses but few which enable greater specialisation or sophistication.
An agenda for transformative peacebuilding involves six areas that need to be addressed simultaneously:
- Accountability: International organisations should be accountable to the people they work with and the communities they serve.
- Global issues: Peace cannot be separated from economic justice, environmental issues and human rights. International organisations need to start conversations with others working on different issues.
- Empowerment: In a world marked by huge power disparities, changing power relations needs to become central to peace work. Peacebuilders should explore ways of maximising their collective power.
- Networks: Peacebuilding organisations should begin to share information and resources systematically.
- Delivering change: Delivering transformative change is less about scale than about a careful integration of creatively subversive elements into everyday activity.
- Action learning: International organisations should learn from the work of other organisations and other sectors and bring those insights into practice.
NB: See also the 2008, fuller version of the argument in Just Wasting Our Time? An Open Letter to Peacebuilders at: http://lettertopeacebuilders.ning.com.
