PATHWAYS FOR PEACE: INCLUSIVE APPROACHES TO PREVENTING VIOLENT - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

PATHWAYS FOR PEACE: INCLUSIVE APPROACHES TO PREVENTING VIOLENT CONFLICT

UNITED NATIONS-WORLD BANK STUDY ON PREVENTION OF VIOLENT CONFLICTS

Violent conflict is becoming more complex

Data Source: UCDP/PRIO Dyadic Dataset + UCDP Non-State Conflict Dataset

Objective of UN-World Bank Study

To improve our understanding of how development processes interact with security, political, and human rights tools, to prevent conflicts from becoming violent.

The study provides clear recommendations to governments and the international community on improvement of approaches to prevention of violent conflicts.

Methodology

• Research based on existing data set and review of

recent literature by the world’s leading research institutions on conflict. Close to 30 thematic papers.

• 19 case studies of countries that have successfully

managed to avoid violent conflicts despite high risk situations.

• Very comprehensive program of consultations in Oslo,

London, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, Geneva, Amman, Cairo, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Bangkok and Myanmar. Consultations at the UN and World Bank.

• A high level steering committee and advisory

committee.

Focus of the study

• Recognizing the centrality of grievances around exclusion

in modern violent conflict.

• Violent conflicts build over a long period of time and in a

non linear way

• Most successful prevention is endogenous, undertaken

by local/national actors and through the internal political

• process. International actors need to support these

processes.

• Focusing on role of actors and structural factors, as well

as institutions.

• Focus on risks: emerging risks, High risks, risks of

escalation and risk of relapse

Siloed approach to prevention

Integrated approach to prevention

Emerging messages

• Prevention works, saves lives, and is cost-effective, but the incentives to

collaborate and act early are lacking. There is an urgent need for more collective solutions at regional, national and local levels.

• States hold the primary responsibility for prevention, but to be effective,

prevention efforts need to include actors such as civil society, the private sector, regional organizations and others. Successful prevention today builds on broad coalitions

• Risks and opportunists tend to be concentrated in a number of specific arenas:

Power, resources, services and security. Issues like land, role of security force , relation between center and periphery particularly central

• When State capacity or legitimacy is weak, state operates outside of the realm of

legality, grievances are often reinforced, but an effective and legitimate state that is sufficiently inclusive will play an important role in avoiding violence.

• To achieve more effective prevention, new mechanisms need to be established

that will enable diplomacy and mediation, security, and development instruments to work with greater synergy, much earlier on.

Emerging messages, cont.

• Different levels of tensions and conflicts need to be addressed at the same
• time. Working solely with elites work less and less well
• Development policies and programs must be a core part of prevention
• efforts. Development actors need to be part of the process, providing support

to local, national and regional prevention agendas.

• Supporting growth and poverty alleviation is not enough. Economic

development does not automatically create peace. Requires moving from traditional economic and social policies towards seeking inclusive solutions that aim to change the incentives of actors to act violently.

• To be effective, prevention needs to start at the very early signs of risks and

needs a long term perspective

• long-term efforts to address the economic, social and political aspirations of

young people, and strengthen voice and role of women, is fundamental to sustaining peace at all levels.