Context:
To achieve sustainable peace and reduce the growing need for humanitarian aid ($25B so far in 2018), governments and humanitarian organizations need to better address the drivers, parties, and consequences of conflict.
In the News:
“The solutions to conflict and humanitarian suffering – peacebuilding and aid – are often seen as entirely different sectors: The former addresses the underlying drivers of violence, while the latter tackles some of its symptoms, such as displacement and food scarcity. While we are no doubt saving lives with humanitarian aid, failing to integrate peacebuilding measures, such as promoting intergroup cooperation and resolving disputes, can perpetuate violence and humanitarian need. We can no longer wait to incorporate conflict management until an emergency is over or a humanitarian response is well under way.”
“Humanitarian organizations should strive to understand how the needs of affected communities are often tied to the drivers and consequences of conflict. Conflict analysis enables aid organizations to identify if and how key stakeholders, such as government officials, militias and non-state armed groups, might impede humanitarian access to vulnerable people through regulations, threats and brute force. As such, undertaking conflict analysis not only ensures that humanitarian aid programs are carried out effectively and in a manner that does not fuel tensions but also reveals how aid organizations can address social, economic, ecological and political drivers of conflict as part of their humanitarian response.”
Insight from Peace Science:
Shifting the focus from post-conflict protection to pre-conflict prevention is more effective and less costly.
Once violent conflict is underway, political barriers and high social and economic costs limit constructive options of violence prevention.
References:
- “How to Integrate Peacebuilding Into Humanitarian Aid Work”. By Jenny Vaughan, & Joe Bubman for Peacebuilding Deeply. June 5, 2018.
- Peace Science Digest, Volume 1, Issue 4 “R2P: The Responsibility to Prevent”
