The world is witnessing a marked rise in violence within states, as more societies experience violent conflict globally. In response to this worrying trend, Interpeace and the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) have renewed their partnership to reduce violence in fragile and conflict affected societies.
The new commitment reflects current shared priorities to build more just, inclusive, resilient, and peaceful societies. In line with a recently updated version of an existing Memorandum of Understanding, Interpeace and PBSO will jointly work towards achieving the Sustaining Peace Agenda in the coming years. The Agenda seeks to sustain peace at the different stages of conflict in all dimensions, by preventing the outbreak of violence, its escalation, continuation, and recurrence.
Many of the key premises of the Sustaining Peace Agenda are now widely accepted and enshrined in policies, such as the application of peacebuilding approaches along the peace-conflict continuum, the focus on conflict prevention, and the need for contributions to peace across the humanitarian, development, stabilization, peace, and human rights fields. However, the operationalization of these conceptual shifts in peacebuilding is lagging.
The PBSO and Interpeace share the objective of enabling and supporting the ‘whole-of-system’ approach to peace that the Agenda calls for by promoting the application of peacebuilding not only as a set of distinct activities, but also as an approach to social, economic and other interventions in conflict affected contexts. This dovetails with the goal of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, which also seeks to promote greater collaboration among international actors towards collective outcomes – all the while enabling local ownership and leadership.
Photo credit: Interpeace.
The UN Peacebuilding Support Office and Interpeace have had a long-standing fruitful partnership based on shared values and objectives. The renewal of this partnership is oriented towards new strategic priorities in line with current gaps and opportunities in peacebuilding.
In the past years, Interpeace has provided support to various processes informing projects by the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). Among others, this was rolled out through backstopping participatory and locally led conflict analysis in The Gambia, facilitating multi-stakeholder consultations for a framework of engagement in Guinea Bissau, and supporting UN agencies in designing peacebuilding projects in Mali and Guinea Bissau. Interpeace has also implemented PBF-funded programmes that support the empowerment of women in Guinea Bissau and Mali, as well as the empowerment of young people in Côte d’Ivoire.
“We are delighted to continue this close collaboration with the PBSO through direct support to both PBSO and PBF processes, as well as strongly aligning the objectives in our independent work,” said Martina Zapf, Senior Manager at Interpeace.
Based on a firm belief in the vital role that an effective UN Peacebuilding Architecture can play, Interpeace also contributed critical inputs to the review of that architecture in 2015 and is doing so again in the 2020 review process. In 2015, Interpeace’s proposal, which is now established, was for the “UN to do less and enable more”.
Interpeace has been supporting UN agencies in implementing the Sustaining Peace Agenda by accompanying the integration of peace responsive approaches into humanitarian and development assistance. The Interpeace Advisory Team (IPAT) has engaged in co-learning processes with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in this regard. In the context of supporting the design and prioritization of PBF projects in various contexts, other agencies have also been accompanied in effectively integrating contributions to peace in their social and economic interventions.
Apart from working to foster peacebuilding action across the UN system, the PBSO and Interpeace will also collaborate on strengthening the evidence base of how different types of interventions can contribute to peace.
Photo credit: Interpeace
COVID-19 has taken the world by surprise and upended life as we know it, introducing looming uncertainties. As we unite in fighting the rapid spread of the virus, we must also recognize that the consequences of the pandemic go beyond medical and public health. The crisis is unique because the direct solutions and ameliorative public health approaches have the potential to be highly conflict-inducing. Thus, the integration of peacebuilding approaches into international responses to COVID-19 is now a matter of urgency.
This briefing paper, Peace and Conflict in a COVID-19 World – Implications for International Responses, summarises ten framing aspects of the crisis and offers three implications for international actors responding to it. Our collective understanding of the causes and solutions to the crisis will determine how we respond to the crisis. While much is uncertain, it is clear COVID-19 is both a multidimensional crisis and an opportunity for change. The key question before us all — especially local and international humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors — is how to leverage opportunities for positive change and manage the potential risks?
It is clear human-centred and cooperative approaches which are at the core of peacebuilding work are needed. Peacebuilding approaches of local ownership and leadership with a long-term resilience focus are critical to embed into technical health responses, as well as broader socioeconomic responses to COVID-19. The way in which these approaches are integrated into national and international responses will be critical not only for the technical success of those responses, but also to understand whether they support peace or might exacerbate new or existing grievances already triggered by the pandemic.
Photo Credit: UN/ Isaac Billy
Early in the crisis some referred to the pandemic as a “great equalizer,” but as the disease evolves, it is increasingly apparent that it is anything but equalizing. COVID-19 threatens broader peace and stability by exacerbating persistent political, social, and economic structural inequalities that render some groups more vulnerable than others. In many contexts, it is reinforcing patterns of inequality and grievances that erode the social contract between individuals and communities with the states that represent, govern, and protect them.
We need resilience approaches that can enhance positive local capacities, skills, and attributes, and enable communities to not just ‘bounce back’ but ‘build back better.’ These conflict sensitive, locally owned, and peace responsive peacebuilding approaches are highly cost-effective and sustainable. They must not be sacrificed due to short-term reallocation of funds to what is deemed as “immediate” pandemic responses. Short- and long-term responses to COVID-19 must be aligned.
Thus, the question of how peacebuilding approaches are integrated into the multidimensional humanitarian and development actions of governments, INGOs and UN actors — or not — is not theoretical. The extent to which international humanitarian and development responses are conflict sensitive and peace responsive to the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 will be critical in determining how successfully those interventions contain the virus. The opportunity for transforming conflict dynamics and patterns of structural violence in this moment is significant and can be driven through operational peace responsive approaches.
As a next step to this briefing paper, Interpeace is developing recommendations and practical actions both for its own peacebuilding policy and programming and to inform the policy, programming and coordination of other international peacebuilding actors. They will be published on this website in the coming months.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Themba Hadebe
Read the full briefing paper: here
The tragic death of George Floyd in the United States has affected all Interpeace staff worldwide in a profound way. It is an affront to human dignity and human rights, and thus to Interpeace’s values and principles.
The Black Lives Matter protests are a global clarion call for a long overdue reckoning with systemic racism against black communities and people of colour.
Interpeace unequivocally condemns racism and is committed to using its resources to address racism in all its manifestations. We affirm our full support to those seeking to change peacefully the patterns of racial injustice that have led to the perpetuation of physical, structural, and cultural violence around the world.
The corrosive legacy of colonialism, anti-black racism and xenophobia continues to have an influence and impact on peacebuilding work today and cannot be ignored. If the world is to achieve meaningful and sustainable peace, there must be recognition of the inter-generational traumas - past and present - caused by centuries of bias, privilege, inequality, and injustice and of how these factors determine life outcomes today.
Racism comes not only in open and direct forms, but in everyday experiences of unconscious bias and discriminatory behaviour. We must therefore be equally vigilant in addressing overt and covert or casual forms of racism and prejudice in our societies.
When the social contract is repeatedly violated, especially by security forces, then public protest and dissent are an understandable and almost inevitable response. Often, such demonstrations are the only way that society is able to shine light on its own patterns, behaviours and institutions of exclusion. In this way, social protest movements become an essential part of the process of restoring trust and building a better future.
Photo credit: Interpeace.
As an international organization for peacebuilding, Interpeace recognizes its responsibility to advance equality and eliminate all forms of discrimination within its structures as a pre-requisite to supporting and enabling local communities to transform their own conflict dynamics. This has led us to consult internally on the need to establish a process of self-examination and reflection to ensure that no form of discrimination, intolerance, or exclusion on racial or other grounds can take place within our own organization.
To advance this commitment, Interpeace is establishing a representative Diversity and Inclusion Working Group that will independently consult with all staff, and will support management to (1) foster a constructive and inclusive discussion in the organization about diversity and inclusion; (2) identify ways, where required, to eliminate any structural, systemic or casual forms of racial and other discrimination and exclusion within our organization and networks; (3) review and offer recommendations on ways to enhance our peacebuilding work positively and meaningfully in support of greater diversity and inclusion; and, (4) strategize how to scale up Interpeace’s practical support for peacebuilding, including in Europe and the U.S., that addresses exclusion, racism, and marginalization.
Interpeace will also join other peacebuilding organizations wherever possible to create greater collective effort and progress in advancing and upholding diversity and inclusion in the worldwide peacebuilding community.
Interpeace takes these steps to build a stronger and more diverse and inclusive organization that is better able to address structural and systemic patterns of exclusion wherever they may be present.
Scott M. Weber
President
Interpeace
A partnership between the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Interpeace contributes to the sustaining peace agenda which calls for contribution to peace at all levels and across all sectors. UNICEF drives change for children every day, by saving their lives, defending their rights, and helping them to fulfil their potential. The organization has long recognized that the sustainability of its work around the world requires addressing the root causes of fragility, conflict, and violence rather than merely responding to their consequences. Based on the recognition of this interrelationship, UNICEF leverages its programming in social services delivery and community engagement focused on realization of child rights for peacebuilding and sustaining peace, as demonstrated through its previous “Peacebuilding, Education, and Advocacy Programme”, and ongoing programming in over 50 countries.
UNICEF’s contribution to peacebuilding is centered on the social and economic dimensions of peace. It supports contributions to sustaining peace at multiple levels including individual capacity to transform conflict, fostering relationships between and within groups ( horizontal social cohesion), and (re)building state-society relations (vertical social cohesion).
In line with the second facet of Interpeace’s mandate – to assist the international community (and particularly the United Nations) to play a more effective role in supporting peacebuilding efforts around the world – Interpeace has embarked on co-learning processes with a number of UN agencies. The Interpeace Advisory Team (IPAT) provides accompaniment on the operationalization of the sustaining peace agenda, including the integration of contributions to peace in humanitarian and development work. This work is guided by key peacebuilding principles including local leadership, fostering horizontal and vertical trust - between people as well as between people and governments - and carefully crafting processes that enable these.
“We are delighted to be supporting UNICEF in its endeavor of fostering peaceful and inclusive societies for the realization of children’s rights. This work constitutes a part of Interpeace’s efforts to partner with other organizations in fostering peace responsive humanitarian, development, and stabilization action,” said Martina Zapf, Senior Manager at Interpeace.
Photo credits: Interpeace.
UNICEF has partnered with Interpeace on an evaluative review of its peacebuilding, social cohesion, and violence prevention programming. The objective of this review, carried out by IPAT, is to identify effective approaches that could be scaled up as well as opportunities to further enhance UNICEF’s work in these areas, drawing on its unique added value. UNICEF and Interpeace have also worked together in several countries to improve the situation of children and peace - as seen in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea Bissau (read more here).
Further consolidating the partnership, UNICEF has concluded a long-term services agreement with Interpeace. Under this framework agreement Interpeace will collaborate with UNICEF in the areas of peacebuilding, social cohesion, and violence prevention. Interpeace’s Advisory Team will provide hands-on assistance to country and programme teams on conflict analysis, programme design and implementation; providing capacity development and supporting organizational change processes; developing action-oriented and field-tested guidance; as well as providing reviews and a sounding board. The two organizations will also continue to identify opportunities for jointly designing and implementing programmatic activities contributing to peace.
The overall aim of the collaboration between UNICEF and Interpeace is to identify and practically act on ways of further enhancing UNICEF’s contribution to peace, in line with its mandate. Recognizing and enabling the important role that social and economic interventions play in fostering peace, gives concrete expression to one of the core tenants of the sustaining peace agenda.
Photo credits: Interpeace
Interpeace is pleased to announce the appointments of three new members to its Governing Board: Ambassador Simon Geissbühler, as the new Representative of the Host Government, Switzerland; Mohamed Khaled Khiari, as the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General; and Nathalie Delapalme.
“I am delighted to welcome Ambassador Geissbühler, Mr. Khiari and Ms. Delapalme as new Board members,” said Monica McWilliams, Chair of the Interpeace Governing Board. “These individuals bring diversity, expertise and very rich experience in their different fields, from which Interpeace will benefit enormously”.
Nathalie Delapalme is the Executive Director of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Before her appointment to the Foundation, Nathalie was a French senior civil servant, and served in various roles at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in other departments. A recipient of several awards, Nathalie is Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, and sits on the Board of Institut Francais des Relations Internationales (IFPRI).
Nathalie Delapalme. Photo credits: Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Ambassador Simon Geissbühler is a Swiss diplomat, historian, and political scientist, currently serving as Head of the Human Security Division at the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs. He previously served as Switzerland’s Deputy Head of Mission to the United States in Washington D.C. from 2017 to 2020, and has held various other positions in the Swiss Foreign Service.
Simon Geissbühler. Photo Credit: Human Security Division of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs
Mohamed Khaled Khiari, a Tunisian diplomat with over 35 years in diplomacy and foreign affairs, is currently the Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations of the United Nations. Before his appointment as Assistant Secretary-General, Mr. Khiari was Director General of Americas, Asia and Oceania in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia.
Photo credits: UN
Together with existing members of the Board, the new members of the Governing Board will provide strategic direction, counsel and guidance to Interpeace.
Welcoming the appointments, the President of Interpeace, Scott Weber, said, “Our new Board members are deeply committed individuals who share Interpeace’s mission of reinforcing the capacities of societies to address conflict in non-violent and enduring ways. The new members bring a wealth of expertise and a rich diversity of experience that will add value, wisdom and impact to Interpeace’s crucial peacebuilding work worldwide.”
The Interpeace Governing Board is comprised of prominent individuals from the government, international, and business sectors. The Board is the top decision-making body of the organization and provides direction to Interpeace’s overall strategy.
Two permanent seats on the Governing Board are reserved for founding institutional members – one for the Host Government, Switzerland, and another for a designated representative of the United Nations Secretary-General. These permanent institutional memberships cement the commitment of Interpeace, the Government of Switzerland and the United Nations to continue to work together for sustained peace worldwide.
Several violent confrontations in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have killed, wounded, and displaced many people. Amid the armed conflict, humanitarian actors have been targeted by communities fearing and resisting interventions.
The spike in violence at a time when communities faced epidemics like the Ebola, and now the COVID-19 pandemic, has also forced people to flee for safety – making it difficult to control spread of the diseases. Responding to humanitarian needs during an epidemic can be challenging, especially if it creates conflicts within communities. The Interpeace team in Ituri is engaging communities to find opportunities for peace and enhance trust between communities and responders.
Photo credit: Interpeace
Since November 2019, Interpeace is actively identifying and engaging, through a participatory and inclusive approach, various actors to collaborate in finding solutions to the violent conflicts in communities affected by epidemics in eastern DR Congo.
“We select them based on their availability and willingness to engage with Interpeace in building durable peace, their community’s acceptance, their capacity to critique research findings, and their leadership and influencing capacities at different levels from local to national scale. Inclusion is a very important criterion to ensure that everyone is represented, and the people engaged must be of good moral standing in society,” said Espoir Kitumaini, Interpeace’s Senior Programme Officer in Ituri.
The Interpeace team has facilitated consultation meetings of different actors in Bunia, Mandima, Komanda and Djugu communities, to share their concerns and propose solutions to address conflict drivers in their communities, including epidemics.
“Interpeace has brought us together with the parents and brothers of militiamen from Lendu community who kill our Hema families in Djugu. I’m thankful for this sitting today because some Lendu people have joined this project support group,” said Elegge Ibrahimu Bamaraki, leader of the Ente community.
“I call on Interpeace to continue its efforts, and especially for sincere dialogues without hypocrisy, so that this long-sought peace is found. Raise awareness among the parents, brothers, and sisters of these militiamen who leave Djugu in mourning, and those in Irumu to tell their children to lay down their arms. And Ituri will have true and lasting peace” said Mr Bamaraki.
Photo credits: Interpeace
The Interpeace team held meetings with the different stakeholders on 22 and 29 May in Bunia to validate the mandate of members of the project support group in the Ituri province. The meeting was attended by over 20 participants representing different local communities, civil society, academia, humanitarian organisations, religious, youth and women groups.
In his opening speech, the Provincial Minister of Planning, Pascal Karoraki said: “Inclusiveness is vital and can contribute effectively to the implementation of the tasks of members of the project support group in Ituri, and to get new strategies for seeking genuine peace.”
Building community trust is key to Interpeace work in support of response operations in eastern DR Congo. The inclusion and active participation of communities are the foundation for lasting peace.
Photo credits: Interpeace
“I did not know that some communities could meet in a room after the killings happening between communities in Djugu and Irumu. Thank you Interpeace for this meeting which brought us even closer,” said 50-year-old Ms Fatuma, Women Leader of the Mambasa community.
For decades, violent conflicts have killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others in eastern DR Congo. The violence and insecurity are major obstacles to humanitarian interventions and can reverse all positive gains already made in response efforts.
“I have understood that Interpeace wants to accompany the provincial government of Ituri in the search for peace, with a community engagement approach of the children of Ituri. Ituri will find its peace through its children, to begin with. Behold, the project support group set up and comprising representatives of different communities can help a lot to push this peace without hypocrisy,” explained Hon. Heritier Bahati, a 33-year-old elected member of the National Assembly and parliamentarian for Djugu.
This participatory community engagement project in Ituri is funded by the European Union (EU) Commission, through the EU Delegation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
EUROPEAN UNION
