This report assesses the impact and value for money (VFM) of international support to government and rebel capacity building for negotiations. It finds that there has been little sustained analysis of the impact of this kind of support. Few donor evaluations focus specifically on these activities and those that do are often not made public (expert comments). No studies were identified that directly examine the VFM of this kind of support.
The report largely relies on available literature and expert comments on the effectiveness of capacity-building support to conflict parties for negotiations. It finds some brief discussion of the effectiveness and VFM of these kinds of support in the case study literature. The next section provides a brief overview of the kinds of actors and activities involved in this area. Section three assesses formal evaluations in the area of mediation support. Section four examines several key case studies: Sudan, the Palestinian Territories, Sri Lanka and Nepal. A number of other cases, including Northern Ireland, were also examined, but no relevant literature was identified.
