Tendencias Curriculares

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“Humanitarian intervention and Early warning”, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Science Society (International), Vol.

49, No.1, February 2005.

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a wide variety of agents for their implementation. These agents advance peace building efforts by addressing functional and emotional dimensions in specified target areas, including civil society and legal institutions. While external agents can facilitate and support peace building, ultimately it must be driven by internal forces. It cannot be imposed from the outside.

Various internal actors play an integral role in peace building and reconstitution efforts. The government of the affected country is not only the object of peace building, but also the subject. While peace building aims to transform various government structures, the government typically oversees and engages in the reconstitution process.

A variety of the community specialists, including lawyers, economists, scholars, educators, and teachers, contribute their expertise to help carry out peace building projects. Finally, a society’s religious networks can play an important role in establishing social and moral norms.

Nevertheless, outside parties typically play a crucial role in advancing such peace building efforts. Few peace building plans work unless regional neighbours and other significant international actors support peace through economic development aid and humanitarian relief. At the request of the affected country, international organizations can intervene at the government level to transform established structures.

They not only provide monetary support to post-conflict governments, but also assist in the restoration of financial and political institutions.

Because their efforts carry the legitimacy of the international community, they can be quite effective.

Various institutions provide the necessary funding for peace building projects. While international institutions are the largest donors, private foundations contribute a great deal through project-based financing. In addition, regional organizations often help to both fund and implement peace building strategies. Finally, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) often carry out small-scale projects to strengthen countries at the grassroots level. Not only traditional NGOs but also the business and academic community and various grassroots organizations work to further these peace building efforts. All of the groups help to address

“The limits imposed on governmental action by limited resources, lack of consensus, or insufficient political will.”

Some suggest that governments, NGOs, and intergovernmental agencies need to create categories of funding related to conflict transformation and peace building. Funds are often difficult to secure when they are intended to finance preventive action. And middle-range initiatives, infrastructure building, and grassroots projects do not typically attract significant funding, even though these sorts of projects may have the

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greatest potential to sustain long-term conflict transformation. Those providing resources for peace building initiatives must look to fill these gaps. In addition, external actors must think through the broader ramifications of their programs. They must ensure that funds are used to advance genuine peace building initiatives rather than be swallowed up by corrupt leaders or channelled into armed conflict.

But as already noted, higher-order peace, connected to improving local capacities, is not possible simply through third-party intervention. And while top-down approaches are important, peace must also be built from the bottom up. Many top-down agreements collapse because the ground below has not been prepared. Top-down approaches must therefore be buttressed, and relationships built.

Thus, an important task in sustaining peace is to build a peace constituency within the conflict setting. Middle-range actors form the core of a peace constituency. They are more flexible than top-level leaders, and less vulnerable in terms of daily survival than those at the grassroots level. Middle-range actors who strive to build bridges to their counterparts across the lines of conflict are the ones best positioned to sustain conflict transformation. This is because they have an understanding of the nuances of the conflict setting as well as access to the elite leadership.

Many believe that the greatest resource for sustaining peace in the long term is always rooted in the local people and their culture. Parties should strive to understand the cultural dimension of conflict, and identify the mechanisms for handling conflict that exist within that cultural setting.

Building on cultural resources and utilizing local mechanisms for handling disputes can be quite effective in resolving conflicts and transforming relationships. Initiatives that incorporate citizen-based peace building include community peace projects in schools and villages, local peace commissioners and problem-solving workshops, and a variety of other grassroots initiatives.

Effective peace building also requires public-private partnerships in addressing conflict and greater coordination among the various actors.

International governmental organizations, national governments, bilateral donors, and international and local NGOs need to coordinate to ensure that every dollar invested in peace building is spent wisely. To accomplish this, advanced planning and international coordination is needed.

There are various ways to attempt to coordinate peace building efforts.

One way is to develop a peace inventory to keep track of which agents are doing various peace building activities. A second is to develop

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clearer channels of communication and more points of contact between the elite and middle ranges. In addition, a coordination committee should be instituted so that agreements reached at the top level are actually capable of being implemented. A third way to better coordinate peace building efforts is to create peace-donor conferences that bring together representatives from humanitarian organizations, NGOs, and the concerned governments. It is often noted that “peace building world greatly benefit from cross-fertilization of ideas and expertise and the bringing together of people working in relief development, conflict resolution, arms control, diplomacy, and peacekeeping. Lastly, there should be efforts to link internal and external actors. Any external initiatives must also enhance the capacity of internal resources to build peace-enhancing structures that support reconciliation efforts throughout a society. In other words, the international role must be designed to fit each case.

Self Assessment Exercise

Discuss the role of the civil society and international organizations in post-conflict peace building.

4.0 CONCLUSION

There is very little doubt that there are certain agents that are crucial to the process of rebuilding conflict societies. These agents come in various forms, all trying to contribute to the rehabilitation and the reconstruction. However, whilst some are engaged in addressing immediate problems of the people and for life to return to normalcy, others are interested in the rebuilding of institutions in order to ensure long lasting peace. Therefore, as noted earlier, it is important that thee activities be coordinated in such a way that the society gets the best out of the efforts.

5.0 SUMMARY

We have discussed the important issue of peace building agents in post conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction. We noted the roles played by governments, the civil society including community specialists, religious networks, the NGOs and international organizations.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Who is Peace building Agents? Discuss the possible role of community specialists in building peace constituencies.

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7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Ronald J. Fisher, 1977. Interactive Conflict Resolution, New York, Syracuse University Press,

“Humanitarian intervention and Early warning”, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Science Society (International), Vol.

49, No.1, February 2005.

EDUCATION