Focus Programming for Peacebuilding and conflict resolution
This cross-cutting theme is described as follows:
“Peace building refers to the process of restoring broken relationships between people engaged in destructive social conflict as well as preventing the escalation of conflict. Peace building is also an integral aspect of our core programmes as social conflict both fuels complex humanitarian emergencies and hampers the sustainability of transformational development efforts. World Vision supports sustained processes of peace building that steadily rebuild or restore networks of interpersonal relationships, and contribute toward just systems.
Knowing the context in which we are working among communities highlights the need for a cross-cutting approach which incorporates conflict sensitivity into our projects. Programmes focus on addressing the root causes of brokenness and examining the economic, political and cultural structures of conflict to bring about long-term change.”
World Vision in MEER (Middle East and Eastern European Region) has addressed numerous conflict and post-conflict situations over the years and has often applied a practical project tool that helps promote peace. The “Do No Harm/Local Capacities for Peace” (DNH) tool equips staff to thoroughly assess the local situation. A DNH assessment helps identify ‘connectors’ and ‘dividers’ so that projects are designed and implemented in a way to build positively on those socio-cultural factors that serve to ‘connect’ people and promote peace.
Identifying these connectors and dividers are crucial, especially in places that have witnessed brutal armed conflict. In 2005, we began the Meer Peacenet, describing its first priority as, “Building Do No Harm / Local Capacities for Peace (DNH/LCP) staff capacity through training.” Over the next period, there has been several DNH/LCP events to cultivate Practitioners and Trainers.
Though a few had applied this tool in previous years, these more recent events have established a stronger regional base of qualifed staff who then aim to strengthen national office capacities. Staff are more frequently carrying out Do No Harm assessments that better align project designs with an underlying peacebuilding agenda. The tool helps to reinforce local factors that strengthen community cohesion.
Another tool, Integrating peacebuilding and Development, will be applied in 2008. We are seeing a solid foundation and commitment to peacebuilding all across MEER.
Case study : Bosnia Herzegovina: post-war programming.
In early 1996, WV Bosnia was faced with a complex post-war context in a nation described as follows:
emergence from a protracted armed conflict in which 85% of the casualties were civilians
vast population shifts leaving approximately two million internally displaced persons and refugees
• up to 200,000 killed in four years of warfare and ethnic cleansing, many still hidden in mass graves
• ethnic cleansing and detainment in concentration camps committed by all groups but primarily carried out by Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats against Muslims
• deeply divided society with a turbulent history of ethnic conflict
500 human settlements targeted by shelling and pillaging, with families having lost an average of 70% of capital and housing stocks
• a society emotionally scarred by trauma, deep-rooted fear, suspicion, hostility, exhaustion
economic devastation and high levels of unemployment
• outstanding justice issues with war criminals still at large
• presence of 60,000 NATO troops to enforce peace among the warring factions
The World Vision program was framed with the understanding that peacebuilding had to be at the center of all that they undertook to help Bosnia recover from four years of brutal conflict. Their central strategic goal became:
“To contribute to peacebuilding through the restoration of war-torn communities with sectoral initiatives in infrastructure and housing reconstruction, small entreprise development, psycho-social assistance and relief preparedness.”
The strategy defined the immediate post-war task in this way: “Peacebuilding is understood as a comprehensive term encompassing a full array of functions and approaches needed to transform the conflict toward a sustainable peace. The contribution to peacebuilding by WVBosnia is in meeting essential human need in war-torn communities for the recovery and ‘normalization’ of the lives of people. Through the recuperation of stability and productivity, an environment conducive to peace and reconciliation is fostered.”
“Peace building refers to the process of restoring broken relationships between people engaged in destructive social conflict as well as preventing the escalation of conflict. Peace building is also an integral aspect of our core programmes as social conflict both fuels complex humanitarian emergencies and hampers the sustainability of transformational development efforts. World Vision supports sustained processes of peace building that steadily rebuild or restore networks of interpersonal relationships, and contribute toward just systems.
Knowing the context in which we are working among communities highlights the need for a cross-cutting approach which incorporates conflict sensitivity into our projects. Programmes focus on addressing the root causes of brokenness and examining the economic, political and cultural structures of conflict to bring about long-term change.”
World Vision in MEER (Middle East and Eastern European Region) has addressed numerous conflict and post-conflict situations over the years and has often applied a practical project tool that helps promote peace. The “Do No Harm/Local Capacities for Peace” (DNH) tool equips staff to thoroughly assess the local situation. A DNH assessment helps identify ‘connectors’ and ‘dividers’ so that projects are designed and implemented in a way to build positively on those socio-cultural factors that serve to ‘connect’ people and promote peace.
Identifying these connectors and dividers are crucial, especially in places that have witnessed brutal armed conflict. In 2005, we began the Meer Peacenet, describing its first priority as, “Building Do No Harm / Local Capacities for Peace (DNH/LCP) staff capacity through training.” Over the next period, there has been several DNH/LCP events to cultivate Practitioners and Trainers.
Though a few had applied this tool in previous years, these more recent events have established a stronger regional base of qualifed staff who then aim to strengthen national office capacities. Staff are more frequently carrying out Do No Harm assessments that better align project designs with an underlying peacebuilding agenda. The tool helps to reinforce local factors that strengthen community cohesion.
Another tool, Integrating peacebuilding and Development, will be applied in 2008. We are seeing a solid foundation and commitment to peacebuilding all across MEER.
Case study : Bosnia Herzegovina: post-war programming.
In early 1996, WV Bosnia was faced with a complex post-war context in a nation described as follows:
emergence from a protracted armed conflict in which 85% of the casualties were civilians
vast population shifts leaving approximately two million internally displaced persons and refugees
• up to 200,000 killed in four years of warfare and ethnic cleansing, many still hidden in mass graves
• ethnic cleansing and detainment in concentration camps committed by all groups but primarily carried out by Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats against Muslims
• deeply divided society with a turbulent history of ethnic conflict
500 human settlements targeted by shelling and pillaging, with families having lost an average of 70% of capital and housing stocks
• a society emotionally scarred by trauma, deep-rooted fear, suspicion, hostility, exhaustion
economic devastation and high levels of unemployment
• outstanding justice issues with war criminals still at large
• presence of 60,000 NATO troops to enforce peace among the warring factions
The World Vision program was framed with the understanding that peacebuilding had to be at the center of all that they undertook to help Bosnia recover from four years of brutal conflict. Their central strategic goal became:
“To contribute to peacebuilding through the restoration of war-torn communities with sectoral initiatives in infrastructure and housing reconstruction, small entreprise development, psycho-social assistance and relief preparedness.”
The strategy defined the immediate post-war task in this way: “Peacebuilding is understood as a comprehensive term encompassing a full array of functions and approaches needed to transform the conflict toward a sustainable peace. The contribution to peacebuilding by WVBosnia is in meeting essential human need in war-torn communities for the recovery and ‘normalization’ of the lives of people. Through the recuperation of stability and productivity, an environment conducive to peace and reconciliation is fostered.”
Share