Peacebuilding Through Community-Based NGOs explores the contested but increasingly relevant role nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play in processes aimed at bringing about international peace and security and in the invention of alternatives for resolving conflict. Through case studies of Partners In Health (Haiti), Women in Black (Serbia), and the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland highlight the range of ways these organizations are involved in post-conflict social reconstruction efforts and with whom and for what purposes they interact as they do so. The authors argue for analyses that take into account the rich mosaic that is the civil society sector rather than treating all of these entities with one broad brush. At once a celebration and a critique, this book provides guidance for those seeking to understand the complexities and potential of the civil society sector for facilitating social justice and transformation.

Grassroots Approaches to Community-Based Peacebuilding Initiatives examines how change is affected in society by studying the experiences of community leaders involved in social activism in Winnipeg, Canada. Documenting the peace-building activities of a host of Community Based Organizations (CBOs), it explores how these activities are used strategically to impact conflict transformation related to issues such as racism, inequality, and extremism in local settings. Due to its combination of a theoretical foundation and first-hand accounts of actual peace-building projects, this book is a highly useful resource for understanding policy and praxis related to peace-building, and a significant contribution to the literature on peace and conflict studies and policy formation.

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, University of Birmingham (International Development Department- School of Public Policy), course: Conflict, Humanitarian Aid and Social Reconstruction, language: English, abstract: This paper illustrates the meaning of peacebuilding as a comprehensive sustainable process that aims at resolving the conflicts, which spread widely in the post Cold War era within different nations and among them. Peacebuilding as a sustainable process requires the intervention of different actors at the local, national and international levels and requires the cooperation between them to coordinate their roles in the post conflict situation. This paper also discusses specifically the role of NGOs as one of these important actors in the international community and the different actions that carried out by them that help in providing a healthy environment for sustaining peace and development at the same time. However, linking peace with aid by NGOs in most of the cases added more damage in the targeted post conflict countries instead of depleting it. Discussed within are the challenges that have been met by different NGOs at different levels when trying to incorporate peacebuilding into development and while intervening in the field.

Violent conflicts today are complex and increasingly protracted, involving more nonstate groups and regional and international actors. It is estimated that by 2030—the horizon set by the international community for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals—more than half of the world’s poor will be living in countries affected by high levels of violence. Information and communication technology, population movements, and climate change are also creating shared risks that must be managed at both national and international levels. Pathways for Peace is a joint United Nations†“World Bank Group study that originates from the conviction that the international community’s attention must urgently be refocused on prevention. A scaled-up system for preventive action would save between US$5 billion and US$70 billion per year, which could be reinvested in reducing poverty and improving the well-being of populations. The study aims to improve the way in which domestic development processes interact with security, diplomacy, mediation, and other efforts to prevent conflicts from becoming violent. It stresses the importance of grievances related to exclusion—from access to power, natural resources, security and justice, for example—that are at the root of many violent conflicts today. Based on a review of cases in which prevention has been successful, the study makes recommendations for countries facing emerging risks of violent conflict as well as for the international community. Development policies and programs must be a core part of preventive efforts; when risks are high or building up, inclusive solutions through dialogue, adapted macroeconomic policies, institutional reform, and redistributive policies are required. Inclusion is key, and preventive action needs to adopt a more people-centered approach that includes mainstreaming citizen engagement. Enhancing the participation of women and youth in decision making is fundamental to sustaining peace, as well as long-term policies to address the aspirations of women and young people.

Analysing the relationship between civil society and the state, this book lays bare the assumptions informing peacebuilding practices and demonstrates through empirical research how such practices have led to new dynamics of conflict. The drive to establish a sustainable liberal peace largely escapes critical examination. When such attention is paid to peacebuilding practices, scholars tend to concentrate either on the military components of the mission or on the liberal economic reforms. This means that the roles of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the impact of attempting to nurture Northern forms of civil society is often overlooked. Focusing on the case of Cambodia, this book seeks to examine the assumptions underlying peacebuilding policies in order to highlight the reliance on a particular, linear reading of European / North American history. The author argues that such policies, in fostering a particular form of civil society, have affected patterns of conflict; dictating when and where politics can occur and who is empowered to participate in such practices. Drawing on interviews with NGO representatives and government representatives, this volume will assert that while the expansion of civil society may resolve some sources of conflict, its introduction has also created new dynamics of contestation. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, development studies, S.E. Asian politics, and IR in general.