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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