Learning from Locals: Insights and Research Directions in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
This presentation explores key findings and lessons from grassroots peacebuilding efforts in post-conflict settings, focusing on local competence and community-driven initiatives. Case studies from Somaliland and Brcko District highlight the importance of safe meeting spaces, collaborative governance, public agendas, and local revenue generation in fostering stability and cooperation. It emphasizes the need for a paradigm shift in understanding state failure and governance through locally relevant frameworks, as well as explores areas for further research to strengthen community-led peacebuilding practices.
Learning from Locals: Insights and Research Directions in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
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Presentation Transcript
Learning from 'locals': lessons and research ideas in post-conflict peacebuildingRosemary CairnsRoads to Research PresentationJanuary 12, 2011
Presentation outline • Introduction (10 minutes) • Main research findings (20 minutes) • Ideas for further research (15 minutes) • Discussion (15 minutes)
A belief in local competence • Involved in elections in Canada and internationally. • Elections depend on local competence; observation assessed degrees of competence. • Different assumptions underlying much international peacebuilding • A paradigm shift is beginning
Wonderingabout that term “state failure” • What was the model of success? • Who defined success, and what did citizens think? • Can we learn from ‘failed states’? • Are there areas within failed states where people have built peace?
Finding ‘islands of achievement’ • Somaliland, in the Horn of Africa • Brcko District, in the Balkans • Communities and governance rebuilt locally after devastating civil war • How did they do it? What did they learn from their achievements? What can we learn?
Five key “island” lessons • 1. The importance of safe places to meet • 2. Learning how to work together again • 3. The value of a public agenda • 4. The importance of local revenue sources • 5. Locally driven planning and international expertise
1. A safe place to begin talking together again • Conflict divides, makes people fearful, drives them back into smaller groups • Given a safe place, moderates will begin talking together again • Talking together leads to working together • Creating safe places increases the space for moderation in politics & leadership
Safety in Somaliland • The clan elders led the process, using traditional methods of conflict resolution, at invitation of SNM • Started at the local level, began small, grew larger and upwards • Re-education for youth, reweaving community • Different from Somalia
Safety in Brcko District • Role of the tribunal, supervisor, local people • Slow process of identifying moderates, finding entry points for work together • Local partnership meant community dealt with divisive issues (symbols, names) • Impact on political environment
2. Learning to work together again • Safety makes it possible for people to learn to work together again • The importance of small steps • Community sets the pace itself • Identify entry points for bigger activities • Bottom up, vs top down • Citizens and political leaders
3. Value of a public agenda • Somaliland – agreements from meetings, reached after much discussion, are shared widely. Peace Charter 1993. • Strategies to deal with potential spoilers • Brcko District – interim awards, final award set clear path forward after intensive listening • Accountability to local community
4. Importance of local revenue sources • Ports generated revenue for government in both regions • Local control of revenues encouraged cooperation, transparency of budgeting and spending • Local revenue generation supported local planning, budgeting
Role of business • Trade was a uniting factor • Business community had freedom to innovate • Business people saw themselves as having a peacebuildingrole • the 2 Hargeisa hotels; Arizona market • Privatization/private business growth • Telecommunications, money transfer
5. Locally driven planning and outside expertise • Diaspora/local partnership in Somaliland meant development was locally driven • Lack of government resources required collaboration with community and NGOs and continues to do so • Outside expertise focused on specific capacity building (municipal organization, taxation, law reform)
Areas for exploration • 1. Scaling up the islands • Can islands form the basis for a post-conflict peacebuilding strategy country-wise? Can an ‘island’ be scaled up? • What “island” lessons can be applied to a country or a larger region?
Areas for exploration • 2. Indigenizing governance • While traditional clan-based, elder-led methods built peace, governance possibilities ‘western’ based • The clan system was ‘vertical’, western systems were ‘horizontal’ and did not incorporate the balances between clans in the traditional system • Extensive body of solutions for clan disputes, but every governance problem is a crisis • What if they had continued exploring the governance possibilities of their own CT approaches? SNM offered example of democratic clan based governance
Areas for exploration • 3. Best practices in locally led peacebuilding in post conflict situations • Rebuilding local CT knowledge and capacity • Successful partnership practices • Governance approaches, models that work • Role of/for business • Successful international contributions
Areas for exploration • 4. Cost benefit analysis • Comparison of costs of locally led approaches vs internationally driven approaches • Somaliland vs. Somalia • Brcko vs BiH • “Iceberg”/”hippotamus” analogy
Areas for exploration • 5. Impact of personal leadership strategies, relationships • The role of key leaders • Approaches and ways of working • “It’s not about us – it’s about them”
