Why Peacebuilding should be part of the COVID-19 response

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 [...]

Interpeace’s initiative “Principles for Inclusive Peace” receives global recognition at the Paris Peace Forum

Our new initiative, “Principles for Inclusive Peace” is among 10 of the most promising governance projects presented at the 2019 Paris Peace Forum (PPF) that ended in the French capital on 13 November. The project was chosen from over 700 initial submissions and 114 projects presented at the Forum. “Principles for Inclusive Peace” is a [...]

IPAT – 5th Anniversary

  This month, we celebrate IPAT’s 5th Anniversary! Interpeace’s Advisory Team – IPAT, was created to provide advising, training, and accompaniment to enchance the capacity of organizations, teams and individuals to engage effectively in their peacebuilding roles. In this video, President of Interpeace, Scott Weber, interviews Martina Zapf, Senior IPAT Manager, to learn about the [...]

Effective Advising Course 2018: Taking Advisers on a Reflective Journey

For the fifth time Interpeace’s International Peacebuilding Advisory Team (IPAT) gathered twenty experts from around the world who currently advise governments, international organizations, or civil   society entities in fragile or conflict-affected countries. During an eight-day course on “Effective Advising in Peacebuilding Contexts” at Chateau de Bossey, Switzerland, IPAT took them on a reflective journey to [...]

Rebuilding trust through dialogue and access to independent information

In conflict-affected countries, access to independent information and news can be threatened by political and economic elites. In these contexts, manipulation of the media and stigmatization can create more division and mistrust between communities.  To envision sustainable development and the possibility of lasting peace in these vulnerable contexts, support to free and professional media that [...]

Building peace by focusing on people’s resilience to conflict

Amid conflict and war, the people most affected by these circumstances have time and time again, risen from misfortune, because of their capacities to organize and transform conflict into opportunities for peace. Strengthening these already existing local capacities must therefore be a strategic priority to peacebuilding, as it ensures sustainability. The mainstream approach to peacebuilding [...]

Can resilience for peace enhance the sustainability of international interventions?

A key factor in building sustainable peace is local ownership. This is often inadequately attended to – or even undermined – by international actors in the process of humanitarian action, development assistance, disaster recovery, and peacebuilding efforts. This is compounded by the fact that frequently external actors focus only on the fault-lines of conflict in [...]

Can women and youth make a difference in the prevention of violent extremism?

Understanding the structural causes of violence and learning how violence mutates is a key factor to preventing and mitigating violent extremism. As defined by USAID, violent extremism involves: “advocating, engaging in, preparing, or otherwise supporting ideologically motivated or justified violence to further social, economic or political objectives.” These acts  threaten the life of millions of [...]

Understanding and Strengthening Resilience for Peace in Timor-Leste

Understanding the resilient capacities of local actors during and after violent conflicts, has been one of Interpeace’s main objectives in the past two years. Determining how these existing capacities for resilience can be strengthened to contribute to sustainable peace, has been at the heart of  our programme Frameworks for Assessing Resilience (FAR), implemented in three [...]

Strengthening peace through ‘resilience’ in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Type: PDF Size: 198Kb Published: June 3, 2016

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is based on extensive work of states, multilateral organizations and civil society organizations, that will guide international development policies of the next fifteen years. The attention now shifts to the design and implementation of national level development plans and policies that will enable countries to meet these goals. The [...]

Peace among us – A population-based study about resilience for peace in Guatemala

Type: PDF Size: 1Mb Published: June 3, 2016

Twenty years after the signing of the peace accords between the State of Guatemala and the National Revolutionary Unity of Guatemala (URNG) in 1996, Guatemala remains confronted to poverty, exclusion, violence and other conflicts and social issues. These are both roots and consequences of social and political polarization, lack of confidence in and legitimacy of [...]

Using resilience to build peace – Practice brief: resilience and peacebuilding

Type: PDF Size: 114Kb Published: June 2, 2016

The mainstream approach to peacebuilding is for the most part premised on finding solutions to fragility. As such, conflict analysis is the primary tool used to inform programmes and policies. Whilst a sound understanding of conflict dynamics, including root causes is necessary in order to develop an appropriate response, the fragility focus tends to overshadow [...]

Assessing resilience for peace – Guidance Note

Type: PDF Size: 1Mb Published: June 2, 2016

This report is the product of the Framework for Assessing Resilience (FAR) programme. It offers analytical and operational reflections and guidance reflecting an approach to the assessment of resilience both as a lens – or a way of seeing, analyzing and understanding peace and conflict in any society – and as a vehicle which serves [...]

Humanitarian response and resilience to violent conflict

Published: May 30, 2016

Humanitarian response can either contribute to or weaken local capacities for resilience to violent conflict. This is a particularly important consideration given that 80% of humanitarian assistance responds to needs deriving from situations of conflict, where tensions and mistrust are high. In this video local actors from three contexts discuss their experiences of humanitarian response, and consider [...]

Recommendations: How humanitarian response can strengthen resilience to violent conflict and end need

Type: PDF Size: 54Kb Published: May 27, 2016

Protracted conflicts have contributed to the unprecedented levels of humanitarian needs that have increasingly overwhelmed the international system in the recent years. In order for collaboration between international and local actors to achieve the desired effectiveness gains for humanitarian response, there must be a strategic orientation towards strengthening local capacities for resilience to violent conflicts. [...]

Frameworks for Assessing Resilience in Guatemala

Type: PDF Size: 2Mb Published: May 23, 2016

Frameworks for Assessing Resilience (FAR) is a programme initiated by Interpeace, implemented between 2014 and 2016 with local partners in Guatemala, Liberia and Timor-Leste. The goal of the FAR programme is to understand resilience to violent conflict from a local perspective and to determine how existing capacities for resilience can be leveraged and strenghtened to better contribute [...]

Understanding and Strengthening Resilience for Peace: Timor-Leste Final Report

Type: PDF Size: 3Mb Published: May 23, 2016

Frameworks for Assessing Resilience (FAR) is a programme initiated by Interpeace, implemented between 2014 and 2016 with local partners in Guatemala, Liberia and Timor-Leste. The goal of the FAR programme is to understand resilience to violent conflict from a local perspective and to determine how existing capacities for resilience can be leveraged and strenghtened to better [...]

Resilience: Translating promise into reality

Type: PDF Size: 416Kb Published: May 11, 2016

Humanitarian need has outpaced humanitarian resources, stemming in part from protracted and recurring conflicts and crises. One of today’s biggest humanitarian challenges is that of displacement, caused by conflict and natural disasters. To further discussion on the need for a resilience perspective, Interpeace and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NCR) are co-hosting a side event at [...]