Peace, Security and Conflict Prevention
From Governancevillage WIKI
While the concept and practice of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, security system reform (SSR) and fragile states are interrelated, they each have distinct conceptual and practical dimensions. The following page presents these four governance themes in relation to each other, while pointing to these key distinctions.
Social and political conflict occurs when two or more people or groups act on the belief that they have incompatible objectives. Conflict prevention involves policies or actions intended to avoid the threat or use of violence to settle a conflict that can occur in the short or long term, whereas peacebuilding is a long-term process that begins after violent conflict has slowed down or stopped. Both conflict prevention and peacebuilding can happen at the local, national or international levels and through the use of a variety of mechanisms and tools. Both processes require careful diagnosis and planning based on history, context, and dynamics in order to avoid failure or destructive consequences. There is an increasing understanding in the development community of the need to “work on and in conflict” rather than “around conflict”.
The United Nations’ (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, emphasizes the important role women play in conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding. The continued use of gender-based violence in conflict situations demonstrates the importance of gender equality considerations in ensuring the security of women and girls. Many governments have adopted laws barring violence against women, and international law now recognizes rape and sexual coercion during conflicts as crimes against humanity.
SSR involves transforming security system actors and their roles, responsibilities, and actions to align with democratic norms and principles of good governance. The security system includes armed police and defence forces, intelligence services, border and customs authorities, the judiciary, and prison and correction services. It also includes oversight bodies such as human rights commissions, legislative committees and other formal and informal processes that include meaningful civilian oversight of the security apparatus, including its financial systems and funding mechanisms.
Conflict prevention, peace-building and SSR have particular implications for fragile states – states in which the government does not demonstrate the will, capacity and/or authority to deliver core state functions such as the enforcement of legitimate security, the protection, promotion and implementation of human rights and the delivery of basic services – water, health, and education. When core state functions are unreliable or inaccessible, the legitimacy of the state erodes, resulting in a breakdown of trust between the public and the government. The erosion of the functioning of the state has significant implications for the health and well being of communities and in particular, of women and children. Fragile states do not all experience violent conflict, but they do have security, stability and poverty reduction challenges, which the Government of Canada has acknowledged require a comprehensive strategy.
[edit] Canadian Resources on Peace, Security and Conflict Prevention
1. Canadian Consortium on Human Security (CCHS) is an academic-based network promoting policy-relevant research on human security. Its core mission is to facilitate the analysis and the exchange of information relating to human security in Canada and internationally. The Human Security Bulletin is the online monthly publication of the CCHS and features timely, informed and concise information and analysis.
2. Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee is a member-based network of Canadian based organizations and individuals actively involved in peacebuilding practice and policy development. The CPCC hosts a database of Canadian organizations and individuals active in peacebuilding and their programs. It also hosts a number of peacebuilding knowledge resources.
3. Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP), maintained and operated by Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa, is based on the Canadian Department of National Defence’s 1991 Geopolitical Database. CIFP provides global overviews, issue-based perspectives, and performance measures of countries to help policy makers, academics and the private sector gain a clearer picture of the geopolitical context in which they make their decisions. CIFP offers a data query and mapping tool, a risk assessment page and country ranking tables by indicators, as well as detailed reports on its indicators and the methodology used in their country analyses.
4. Open Source for Effective Response (OSER) is an initiative led by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) involving specialists and international organizations in the field of peace, security and conflict prevention. The aim of OSER is to develop mechanisms to support efforts to analyze and respond to violent conflict and instability, and to promote improved coordination, operational coherence, and alignment of actions at the country level. OSER builds on existing efforts of donors and international leaders in this field including FAST, Stockholm International Peace Research Initiative (SIPRI) and the Carleton University initiative on Country Indicators for Foreign Policy.
OSER is part of the Peace, Conflict and Fragile State knowledge community hosted by Governance Village, an online platform to support effective practice knowledge exchange and collaboration among Canadian and international actors in the field of democratic governance. Governance Village, led by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is the result of collaboration between several Canadian and international partners.
5. Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (PPC) has been working for the past 10 years to bridge the policy-practice divide in the understanding of peace operations. PPC offers a wide variety of services to individuals and organisations interested in peace operations. PPC provides a variety of courses both at PPC training sites and in the field. PPC’s capacity-development exercises and field mission support services are designed to enhance the effectiveness of individuals and organisations. PPC also conducts research and supports conferences on a variety of topics including Security Sector Reform, the integration of development, diplomacy and defence, and gender in peace operations. The PPC website contains an extensive list of its publications available for purchase.
[edit] International Resources on Peace, Security and Conflict Prevention
1. Conflict-Sensitive Approaches to Development, Humanitarian Assistance and Peacebuilding (Conflictsensitivity.org) aims to provide information on issues of conflict sensitivity, and to complement and enable conflict sensitive practice in development, humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding. The website makes available a library of publications pertaining to conflict sensitivity, information to help steer the private sector in regions of conflict, details on tools and training to help aid organisations realize conflict-sensitive operations; and forums and a Guest Lecture Series where participants can ask questions and weigh in on discussions relating to conflict sensitivity.
2. CPR Compendium of Operational Tools for Peacebuilding contains material of a practical nature and includes operational frameworks and tools. Other types of documents, such as policy or general research papers, are not included in the compendium, but may be found through one of the links posted on the site.
3. ELDIS is a broad based development database and is one of a family of services, which include the GRC-Exchange, provided by the Institute for Development Studies in the UK. Its resource page on conflict and security provides information on: development research from international bodies, think tanks and NGOs on gender, business and rights based approaches to conflict. ELDIS also provides links to leading conflict websites and online resource guides as well as country profiles and career advice and job postings for individuals interested in forging a career in international peace and conflict resolution.
4. Fragile States Group (FSG) is located at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The purpose of the Fragile States Group is to facilitate coordination among bilateral and multilateral donors to improve aid effectiveness in fragile states. It is also designed to help increase the focus on countries facing weak governance and violent conflict and to avoid the ‘cost of neglect’. A useful reference document on their site is Security System Reform and Governance: A DAC Reference Guide.
The FSG documents and publications contain some of the latest thinking on fragile states at the OECD, including its Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States, Whole of Government Approaches to Fragile States, Service Delivery in Fragile States and Aid Flows to Fragile States. The site also contains case studies on donor involvement in fragile states, news releases and summary reports of meetings and conferences on development effectiveness in fragile states.
5. The Governance and Social Development Research Centre (GSDRC) is a public portal, which aims to provide users with the latest in thinking in governance and development by practitioners and academics. To facilitate the easy access of information the GSDRC presents key texts under a variety of Governance Themes including conflict and fragile states, as well as searchable Information and Organisation databases containing critical reviews of documents and organisations. In addition, the GRC Exchange contains a Training and Events database where users can search for training courses and conferences with full contact details and links to associated organisations.
6. International Peace Academy (IPA) is an independent, international institution dedicated to promoting the prevention and settlement of armed conflicts between and within states through policy research and development. IPA produces a range of publications, including research, policy and conference reports.
7. Network on Conflict, Peace and Development Co-operation (CPDC) is located at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Community (DAC). The DAC’s work on conflict prevention and peacebuilding is carried out through the CPDC. Along with the DAC Network on Governance and Capacity Building and the Fragile States Group (see below), CPDC serves as a forum for member countries to share lessons learned and a place to improve coherence on policies on peacebuilding in difficult contexts and fragile states. The publications and documents include DAC Guidelines on conflict prevention Helping Prevent Violent Conflict, policy briefs and a case study on peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
8. Low Income Countries Under Stress Unit of World Bank (LICUS) is located at the World Bank. It focuses on challenges regarding sustainable development and poverty reduction in fragile states. The LICUS website contains extensive information on the unit’s activities including the World Bank’s strategies in focus countries, the Bank’s research on fragile states, information on partner organizations, information on the LICUS Trust Fund as well as news and current events.
