Definition and Introduction
Tasks
Dimensions
Agents Definition and Introduction Peacebuilding, or post-conflict reconstruction, is a process that facilitates the establishment of durable peace and tries to prevent the recurrence of violence by addressing root causes and effects of conflict through reconciliation, institution building and political as well as economic transformation. Peacebuilding initiatives are not limited to the post-conflict environment. Most of the tasks described above are effective tools to prevent conflicts. Furthermore, a negotiated peace-agreement should include an agenda for reconstruction to secure sustainability. And during peacekeeping missions the first steps into post-conflict reconstruction can be taken. Reconstruction should be multidimensional and multisectoral. Peacebuilding is complex and results materialize only in the medium and long-term. A great number of agents engage in a wide variety of reconstruction efforts. These efforts include addressing the functional and emotional dimensions of peacebuilding in specified target areas, such as civil society and legal institutions, among others. Evaluating the success and failure of peacebuilding efforts is therefore especially challenging. Tasks - Create an environment conducive to self-sustaining and durable peace: Resolve the problems of willingness to cooperate. Social and economic transformation is paramount for the establishment of durable peace.
- Reconcile opponents: Consider the psychological and emotional components of protracted conflict and the relationships between antagonist groups.
- Address structural and social factors: Direct efforts towards transformation of the conditions that caused the conflict.
- Prevent conflict from re-emerging: Create mechanisms that enhance cooperation and dialogue among different identity groups in order to manage conflict of interests with peaceful means.
- Integrate civil society in all efforts: Include all levels of society in the post-conflict strategy. Design political transformation to include civil society in decision making (bottom-up and top-down approaches).
- Establish mechanisms to handle issues of justice: Set up institutions that aim to avoid impunity of crimes that were committed during the conflict (truth commissions, war crime tribunals, fact finding missions).
Dimensions In carrying out the tasks, Peacebuilding should address all dimensions of society; the societal and state structures as well as the emotional conditions of individuals. - Functional structures: Building institutions that provide procedures for channeling conflict into acceptable solution mechanisms.
- Emotional conditions and social psychology: So much less tangible than the physical destruction of war, the effects of conflict on the psychology of individuals and a society are as profound as they are neglected. If the attitudes that lead to conflict are to be mitigated, and if it is taken that psychology drives attitudes and behaviours of individuals and their collectivities, then new emphasis must be placed on understanding the social psychology of conflict and its consequences.
- Social stability: Restoring peaceful interaction among groups on the horizontal as well as on the vertical levels.
- Rule of law/ethics: Re-establishing social norms, the rule of law and ethics in the population.
- Cultural dimension: Understanding the needs and cultural peculiarities of the affected groups.
Agents Peacebuilding targets all levels of society as well as all aspects of the state structure. Therefore, a wide variety of different agents engage in the implementation of post-conflict reconstruction. Notice that success requires local ownership, thus external agents (international organizations and NGOs) can only facilitate and support Peacebuilding, but can never impose it. - International organizations intervene at the governmental level on request of the affected country. Their engagement carries the legitimacy of the international community, thus they have the ability to change and transform established structures.
- Donor institutions provide the necessary funding for Peacebuilding projects. International organizations are the largest donors. Private foundations contribute through project-based financing.
- Regional institutions are international organizations with a regional mandate. They fund and/or implement Peacebuilding strategies
- NGOs in most cases carry out small-scale projects to strengthen the grass-root level of affected countries.
- The Government of the affected country is subject as well as object of Peacebuilding. The government structures are often changed after conflicts. At the same time, the government oversees and engages in reconstruction.
- Specialists (lawyers, economists, scholars, educators, teachers) are employed to carry out the specific Peacebuilding projects. Their expertise plays an important role for the reconstruction of the state and transformation of society.
- Religious networks can play an important role for the reestablishment of moral ethics. Their role might be questionable in cases where the conflict had been aggravated by religious differences in the population.
- Academia provides important insights for practitioners through research and theories, which are derived thereof.
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