What are the current priorities and challenges for peacebuilding and statebuilding? This report synthesises the findings of seven multi-stakeholder consultations designed to identify key priorities, bottlenecks and good practices in national and international support for peacebuilding and statebuilding. The consultations found that stronger and more coherent national and international engagement is needed to support peacebuilding and statebuilding in the short, medium and long term.
The concepts of peacebuilding and statebuilding have emerged in response to the growing concern that traditional development approaches might not be adequate or appropriate in situations characterised by insecurity, heightened risks of conflict and weak state capacity and legitimacy. In general terms, ‘peacebuilding’ is about ending or preventing violent conflict and supporting sustainable peace, while ‘statebuilding’ is about establishing capable, accountable, responsive and legitimate states. While these approaches should be seen as distinct, they are mutually reinforcing. The report views peacebuilding and statebuilding as processes aimed at ‘supporting the building of effective, legitimate, accountable and responsive states characterised by a healthy state-society relationship and by peaceful relations among communities and with external neighbours’.
Consultations held in Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan and Timor-Leste articulated the various dimensions and dynamics of the two processes, illustrating that different contexts will present different peacebuilding and statebuilding scenarios. There seems to be an emerging consensus around a set of common peacebuilding and statebuilding priorities that national and international partners should consider in their work in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. These priority areas are:
- Inclusive political settlements and processes
- Basic safety and security
- Justice and peaceful resolution of conflict
- Capacity to raise revenues and meet expectations through service delivery
- Effective management of resources and sustainable economic development
- Societal capacities for reconciliation and peace
- Capacity to maintain constructive relations with neighbours and the region.
Good practices are emerging as to how to address these priorities in-country. In particular, the consultations revealed progress on ways in which national and international partners are supporting political processes and critical sectors like security sector reform (SSR). Some good practices were also identified in relation to planning and accountability frameworks, specifically donor alignment and harmonisation. Many challenges remain, however, which donors need to address to improve their peacebuilding and statebuilding programmes:
- Donors and national actors must develop a shared vision for peace and long-term development
- Donors and national actors need to improve strategic planning and communication, as well as priority setting and rates of implementation
- Financing modalities still lag behind policy practice in dealing with the dynamics of post-conflict settings
- Institutional arrangements in many of these settings remain very poor, often necessitating overly centralised and donor-dominated approaches
- There is a gap in strategies to build a positive relationship between the state and citizens and to support opportunities for social reconciliation (within and across communities)
- Citizen participation must be expanded to give these processes a sense of ownership
- Accountability between national and international partners should be strengthened to ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly delineated and effectively executed.
