Putting the Aid for Peace Approach in a Wider Context

by Kenneth BushA Presentation to the PEACE III Monitoring Committee

Signal Business Centre, Bangor, Northern Ireland22 April 2009

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• An Aid for Peace Approach is one that seeks to weave or to re-weave personal relationships within and between groups following violent conflict.

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Aid for Peace is

• an approach focused on the nested sets of relationships within and between groups – including:

– social, economic, political, cultural, geographical relationships.

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Aid for Peace is not

• limited to the physical infrastructure of post-war settings (post-conflict reconstruction)

• limited to political structures and processes (post-conflict governance and peace making)

• limited to economic reconstruction (development

assistance or private sector investment)

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Aid for Peace

refers to all initiatives that

• foster and support sustainable structures and processes which strengthen the prospects for peaceful co-existence and

• decrease the likelihood of the outbreak, re-occurrence, or continuation of violent conflict.

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Aid for Peace

• is a twofold process of deconstructing the structures of violence, and constructing the structures of peace

• These two sets of activities are interrelated, but separate, and must be undertaken simultaneously. Any intervention that includes one without the other will fail to have a net positive peacebuilding impact.

• Above all, Aid for Peace is about IMPACT – whether this is a conflict resolution workshop or a bridge (both egs need to be monitored for peace impacts)

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Lessons: Conflict-Generating Aid How Development can Create Conflict

• By increasing socio-economic inequalities – or fueling the belief that such inequalities are increasing

• By benefiting certain groups more than other

• By increasing competition for development resources & political control

• By introducing new structures & institutions that challenge existing ones (social, political or economic)

• Aid resources stolen by combatants and used to support armies and to buy weapons.

• Aid affects markets by reinforcing either the war economy or the peace economy.

• The distributional impacts of aid affect intergroup relationships, either feeding tensions or reinforcing connections.

• Aid substitutes for local resources required to meet civilian needs, freeing them to support the conflict.

• Aid legitimizes people and their actions or agendas, supporting the pursuit of either war or peace.

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Lessons: Peace-Nurturing AidHow Aid can Nurture Peace

• By creating common/shared/joint interests• Creating ad hoc (then increasingly institutionalized) mechanism of

cooperation• Increasing & institutionalizing positive communication channels• Decreasing negative stereotyping• Creating neutral space• Demilitarizing minds• Reinforcing appropriate conflict mgt mechanisms• Demonstrating alternatives to conflict (econ/soc)• Nurturing Empathy

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Telling the Difference Between Development Indicators, Peace Indicators, and Conflict Indicators

Example1 : Water Project in a Conflict-Prone Setting Development indicator: Increased number of hectors under irrigation

Conflict Indicator: Number of conflicts over water distribution

Peace indicator: Number of cooperative relationships between farmers of different ethnic/religious groups OR increased levels of involvement in joint management of the project

Example 2: Health Project in a Conflict-Prone Setting Health/development indicator: Change in prevalence of disease Conflict Indicator: Conflict over access to new health services Peace indicator: level of support within conflicted communities for non-partisan health services OR degree to which staff reflects (or is accepted by) all communities and sub-groups.

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DOs and DON’Ts of Aid for Peace

DON’T• minimize local inputs • prioritize self-sufficiency (re

resources broadly defined)• bring the material and human

resources for their anticipated job• limit approach to task-oriented,

short-term projects, that are dependent on high external support

• privilege product over process• be Mechanistic

DO• maximize local inputs• build on local resources• develop local capacities to

identify problems and formulate solutions

• be process-oriented, long-term, and minimally dependent on institutional support (Ideally)

• privilege process over product• be organic

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Thank you

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