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Content: Peacebuilding when?
Conflicts are not static but rather they change over time; sometimes they increase in intensity and violence, and sometimes they decrease. At each stage there are opportunities for particular types of peacebuilding work. To briefly introduce these, the five stages of conflict are:
Stage 1: Gathering materials for the fire / Potential conflict. In the early stage, materials for the fire are collected. Some of these materials are drier than others, but there is no fire yet.
Stage 2: Fire begins burning / Confrontation. In the next stage, a match is lit and the fire begins to burn. Usually a confrontation between parties, like a large public demonstration, serves as the match, which quickly ignites the dry materials.
Stage 3: Bonfire / Crisis. The fire burns as far and fast as it can, burning wildly out of control. In this stage, the conflict reaches a crisis and, just like the fire, conflict consumes
the materials fuelling it.
Stage 4: Coals / Potential conflict. At some point, the fire abates, the flames largely vanish and just the coals continue to glow as most of the fuel is burnt up. At this stage,
conflicts can either continue to burn themselves out or, if new fuel is added, re-ignite.
Stage 5: Fire out / Regeneration. Finally, the fire is out and even the embers are cool. At this stage, it is time to focus on things besides the fire, and rebuild and help regenerate
what was lost.
Notes for the trainer: While these stages of conflict seem relatively clear on paper they are very messy in real-life situations, where there are no clear intervention times or level boundaries. You can use the activity Peacebuilding Where and When? puts these frameworks into action in order to help clarify the stages of conflict and levels of intervention. There are two handouts for participants to use as templates for identifying peacebuilding activities and opportunities.
Peacebuilding activities during different stages of conflict
Using the fire metaphor for different stages of conflict we can identify various tasks and activities that await peacebuilders. Below are some possibilities, which you can use as
examples for the activity Peacebuilding where and when?.
Peacebuilding in Stage 1: Transforming Materials and preventing fire. In this stage the situation is somewhere between appearing to be peaceful on the surface and experiencing significant social tension. In areas where violent conflict is possible, we often see people pushing for social change, and view them as the most “flammable” or dangerous elements because of their high visibility. However, those who try to maintain an unjust status quo are equally dangerous although they are less visible as they push in the opposite direction to those seeking change. At this stage, there are a number of tasks and activities for peacebuilders.
One activity is engaging in prejudice reduction work with groups at all levels of society, from national leaders to local community members and to children in schools. Prejudice reduction activities focus on identifying and changing negative attitudes towards ethnic, religious, political or other groups who are disliked. Prejudice reduction is one form of violent conflict prevention, because it reduces a source of tension in societies and encourages people to be more accepting of others and their ethnic, cultural, religious and physical differences.
Another peacebuilding activity at this stage is culturally appropriate conflict resolution training. Conflict resolution training is designed to help improve communication patterns
and give people new tools to deal with conflicts productively, to address their differences without resorting to violence. People at all levels and stages of conflict can learn and use
these skills. Conflict resolution skills include mediation, negotiation, problem solving and arbitration, for example. Peacebuilders can support local and national capacities to deal
with conflicts that build on cultural models, such as reviving the use of respected leaders as intermediaries. These local and national capacities can develop new structures to allow grievances to be aired and addressed without the parties resorting to violence. One further role is to assist dialogue between high level leaders; agents for peace can provide “good offices” for meetings between the leaders or act as an intermediary.
A third peacebuilding activity in stage one is non-violent advocacy or advocacy training. Often there are hidden conflict issues in stage one, such as the lack of human rights and
presence of structural violence. Before just, lasting peace can be achieved, these structural issues need to be corrected. Advocacy brings public attention to issues of injustice that may not be well understood, and brings the power of groups to bear, which helps even out political and economic power imbalances without resorting to the power of violent force. Advocacy and advocacy training usually focus on grassroots as well as mid-level leaders, because it provides them with an alternative way to pursue social justice. Advocacy increases the level of tension in societies because it raises controversial issues publicly, and it threatens those in power with change – people in power face the prospect of losing their power and benefits. Peacebuilding, with its focus on relationships and process, stresses the importance of a nonviolent process that is geared to restore broken relationships and transform injustices. In order for advocacy to prevent violent conflict, it is necessary to be aware of the rising tensions and act as far as possible to ensure alternative ways of dealing with the conflicts are used and violence is not initiated. There are numerous training materials developed specifically for advocacy.
Human rights education and training are peacebuilding activities during the first stage of conflict that are often linked to advocacy. The focus here is on creating an awareness of
what a just society looks like by identifying which rights and responsibilities people have. Human rights education, training and advocacy can occur with groups at all levels of the
peacebuilding triangle.
Economic and agricultural development projects are peacebuilding activities in stage one if they help transform structural injustices, social inequities and contribute to building
relationships across lines of tension. Development projects can involve participants from opposing communities in ways that build bridges between the communities, transform
their relationships, prevent violent conflict and lay the foundations for just peace.
Peacebuilding in Stage 2: Limiting What Ignites and Preventing the Flames from Spreading. During Stage 2 the opportunity that those looking for social change were waiting for to shift the power structure or political system may arrive, but it is also the point at which those in power try to desperately hold on to their power and maintain the status quo. Examples of actions that spark conflict include arrests of community leaders, court decisions, protest marches, and assassinations. The method of social action and type of power people use increases or decreases the likelihood that a conflict will escalate into violence. If one party uses armed force, the other party is much more likely to do the same in retaliation. The dynamics of confrontation will also be different if it is a one-time event, versus a series of events.
Possible roles for peacebuilders at this stage include non-violent advocacy and advocacy training, as mentioned above. Advocacy efforts may be located within a particular country, within a region, or part of a global effort. For example, the advocacy efforts to stop countries from producing and using landmines were originally focused within countries, but built up into an international movement that successfully banned anti-personnel landmines at an international convention in 1997. Advocacy efforts like the landmine movement are aimed at top level leaders, including government officials, but are built on earlier advocacy efforts with grassroots, local community groups and mid-level leaders.
Human rights education and training are also peacebuilding activities that can continue during stage two. While people may be more aware of their rights during this stage of conflict, there will be further education, training and advocacy work to be done to achieve a just society.
Encouraging local capacities for building peace and engaging in alternative forms of conflict resolution are very important activities during this stage. These activities can help channel movement for change in non-violent ways that still produce change but prevent mass violence, death and loss. To be effective, these capacities for peace and conflict resolution need to be developed at all three levels of leadership. Specific efforts may include conflict resolution and problem solving workshops. Problem solving is helpful for generating creative alternatives and solutions for the conflict.
During the second stage of conflict, economic and agricultural development projects may continue to be peacebuilding activities. These projects are important for helping provide
livelihoods and build up alternative structures for more just societies. However, it is critical that these projects work on building relationships between conflicting parties and address the underlying issues of injustice. If these relationships and systems are not addressed, all the work spent on creating quality programmes can be lost in the chaos of violence that often erupts. Development projects can be peacebuilding activities by involving participants from opposing communities in ways that build bridges between the communities, transform their relationships, prevent violent conflict and lay the foundations for just peace.
Another type of peacebuilding activity at this stage is providing alternative media and communications sources. This may involve supporting newspapers or newsletters that spread messages for peace, including debunking myths of the “enemy,” telling powerful stories of people reaching out to others across conflict lines, discussions of what justice and mercy call for, or fora for healthy debate. Radio and television stations can also be used to spread messages of peace instead of war, or generate more understanding of opposing view points.
Peacebuilding in Stage 3: Limiting Damage. In Stage 3, violent conflict prevails. War is the most organised form of violent conflict, which involves official governments with highly armed militaries fighting against each other. Civil wars, or “ethno-political” wars (Gurr, T. R., Minorities at Risk: A Clobal View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts, United States Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, 1993) are also devastating, and tend to leave a higher number of civilians, or people who are not members of fighting forces, dead or
wounded. In the last decade of the 20th century, conflicts within countries like Rwanda, former Yugoslavia, and Angola, took a horrific toll. Lives, loved ones, homes and
communities were consumed in this terrible type of fire. At the peak of violent conflicts, there are some unique although very difficult, challenging and often dangerous
activities for peacebuilders. Some of these activities are within Caritas’ and other NGOs’ abilities, and some of them are not.
One type of peacebuilding activity is peacekeeping. This involves putting government military forces, usually under the United Nations (UN) flag, in a conflict between the warring parties. These troops can prevent the conflict from further escalating and give groups some physical and social space to open up political negotiations instead of violent confrontation.
Advocacy efforts that focus on bringing pressure to bear on the leaders of parties in conflict to stop the violence is another peacebuilding activity during this stage of conflict. This
type of advocacy can be done from outside of the country or inside. International advocacy efforts may push for UN sanctions against a particular government or lobby individual
governments to change their respective foreign policies. The efforts can change the power dynamic within a country as well as the costs and rewards of pursuing violent conflict.
At the local and mid-levels of leadership, agents for peace can act to mitigate or limit the effects of violence. This may include an international monitoring presence, which can limit violence by bringing international attention to human rights violations. Local groups may also monitor the number and types of violent episodes in their communities, however,
often it is more dangerous for them to do so because of their connections to the community and risks to their families.
Peacebuilding activities may also encourage dialogue and cooperation across conflict lines during this stage of conflict. Peacebuilders can act as intermediaries, building up enough trust with the leaders of the conflicting parties to begin either carrying messages from one leader to another, or offering “good offices” so the leaders can meet in a neutral area. As part of a religious organisation, Caritas workers are often very well placed to begin interfaith dialogue.
Another activity that can begin during this stage of conflict, and lasts through the next two stages of conflict is psychosocial support and trauma healing. People, whether they are
directly involved in the fighting and lose limbs, or indirectly involved and lose loved ones, experience a great deal of trauma and stress. It is important to help them deal with their trauma in culturally appropriate ways.
Media and communications activities mentioned above during Stage 2 become even more important in Stage 3 when most media sources superficially focus on sordid details of conflict events, and often incite more fear and violence when they demonise the enemy.
Emergency relief and support are often critical activities during this stage of conflict as people are displaced from their homes and need food, shelter and water. Emergency relief efforts can be conducted in ways that take long-term peacebuilding concerns into account and contribute to strengthening local groups and their abilities to make connections and build relationships for peace.
Peacebuilding in Stage 4: Cooling the Coals. During this stage of conflict, the heat of violence has decreased, and while there are threats of the violence resurging, there is also an opportunity to redirect the parties towards non-violent methods of change and conflict resolution. It takes considerable work to cool the hot emotions and hatreds that exist, but it is during this stage that we see the possibility of social transformation. Peacebuilders can make the difference for a community starting down the path towards peace
rather than further violence. As in the other stages, there are a variety of activities peacebuilders can do.
Peacebuilders can be a part of local reconciliation and peacebuilding organisations, or they can support building capacity at the local level. Strong local organisations and networks of organisations are critical for building a firm foundation for peace in the community. These networks can build horizontally across the peacebuilding triangle, improving relationships between conflicting groups. Networks can also connect people vertically in the peacebuilding triangle, across different leadership levels. Networks allow the efforts of multiple groups working in many different communities to join together and build momentum towards a peace process beyond their individual communities.
[Add figure of triangle with horizontal and vertical arrows]
Another set of peacebuilding activities focuses on economic and agricultural development projects. These projects can reconnect people across conflict lines and are often particularly effective if tied to rebuilding infrastructures that all parties require. Reconstructing the physical infrastructure of a country can also transform relationships and unjust structures in order to ensure that this work is not in vain. Given the fragile nature of peace at this stage, relationships need to be built across the various levels of leadership, although economic and agricultural projects usually focus on the grassroots level.
Work on psychosocial support and trauma counselling continues during stage four. As mentioned in Stage 3, trauma and support for trauma are mediated by culture, and therefore activities have to be culturally based. Other types of physical support will be necessary, including health services, for example for prosthetic limbs, or those exposed to
HIV/AIDS during the conflict.
Peacebuilders can continue to support or develop alternative media and communications to share positive stories and opportunities for peace. At this stage it is important to show
progress towards peace and keep hope for an eventual just peace alive. Hope and visible progress are two important ingredients for helping groups get out of Stage 4 and move
toward sustainable peace and reconciliation.
Demobilising soldiers is an important peacebuilding activity. This involves not only collecting weapons but also helping former soldiers find constructive employment that
generates enough income to survive. Reintegration is part of demobilisation but focuses on re-entry and requires a more holistic community strategy. Removing landmines is also an important task. Often landmines prevent farm fields from being turned to productive use, and threaten the lives of children as they play or farmers as they plough.
Further activities for peacebuilders to explore at this stage include interfaith dialogue, mediation, and peace education for children, among many others.
Peacebuilding in Stage 5: Regeneration. This stage of conflict is usually termed “post-conflict,” or “post-agreement,” because political leaders have taken a few steps towards peace and signed an agreement. However, there continues to be much work for peacebuilders during this stage and it takes many, many years to build peace – at least as many as it took to get into the conflict. Numerous activities listed above in Stage 4 need to continue during Stage 5 when violence no longer threatens.
Helping people deal with post-war trauma continues to be an important activity for peacebuilders, as well as working with media and communications. Peacebuilders can also support reintegrating soldiers and displaced persons or refugees into communities, rebuilding adequate governance and justice systems to deal with everyday problems and organisation, and developing peace education for children.
Post-conflict reconstruction of homes, farms, office buildings, roads and access to basic services like water are needed. While some of this may have begun earlier, conditions are more stable in Stage 5, and so it is easier for this work to continue. Often, considerable chunks of the physical, social, political and economic infrastructures of a country or region have to be rebuilt. As mentioned above, these efforts can further build and help heal relationships by incorporating people from across the former conflict lines, and engaging in a process that uses and recognises contributions from each group.
Micro-finance and agricultural projects are an important part of establishing sustainable economic development. As above, these activities can also work to rebuild and transform relationships by involving people in cooperatives or other joint ventures across conflict lines.
Reconciliation and psycho-social support and healing work between former enemies may begin or continue. Reconciliation is a very long and delicate process. Programmes that focus on reconciliation need to take great care not to further damage relationships or people who have already suffered a great deal. This manual understands reconciliation as a process between individuals, conflicting parties and divided communities, although political leaders often try to incorporate an element of reconciliation into the political process. This public acknowledgement of past wrongs may be very important for allowing a country to rebuild itself. However it does not necessarily mean that people have forgiven each other or that they are personally prepared to try and move beyond past events and injuries.
An alternative way of identifying peacebuilding roles is by using the peacebuilding leadership triangle rather than stages of conflict as the primary organising guide. The picture below identifies some possible peacebuilding roles at the different levels of intervention as well as when they might best be used.
Here, you can find five good lectures on Lederach's level of action.
Source: Adapted from Neufeldt, R., Fast, L., et al., Peacebuilding: A Caritas Training Manual, Vatican City, Caritas Internationalis, 2002, pp. 83-89. The manual is avialable in a free pdf file at www.caritas.org.
Stage 1: Gathering materials for the fire / Potential conflict. In the early stage, materials for the fire are collected. Some of these materials are drier than others, but there is no fire yet.
Stage 2: Fire begins burning / Confrontation. In the next stage, a match is lit and the fire begins to burn. Usually a confrontation between parties, like a large public demonstration, serves as the match, which quickly ignites the dry materials.
Stage 3: Bonfire / Crisis. The fire burns as far and fast as it can, burning wildly out of control. In this stage, the conflict reaches a crisis and, just like the fire, conflict consumes
the materials fuelling it.
Stage 4: Coals / Potential conflict. At some point, the fire abates, the flames largely vanish and just the coals continue to glow as most of the fuel is burnt up. At this stage,
conflicts can either continue to burn themselves out or, if new fuel is added, re-ignite.
Stage 5: Fire out / Regeneration. Finally, the fire is out and even the embers are cool. At this stage, it is time to focus on things besides the fire, and rebuild and help regenerate
what was lost.
Notes for the trainer: While these stages of conflict seem relatively clear on paper they are very messy in real-life situations, where there are no clear intervention times or level boundaries. You can use the activity Peacebuilding Where and When? puts these frameworks into action in order to help clarify the stages of conflict and levels of intervention. There are two handouts for participants to use as templates for identifying peacebuilding activities and opportunities.
Peacebuilding activities during different stages of conflict
Using the fire metaphor for different stages of conflict we can identify various tasks and activities that await peacebuilders. Below are some possibilities, which you can use as
examples for the activity Peacebuilding where and when?.
Peacebuilding in Stage 1: Transforming Materials and preventing fire. In this stage the situation is somewhere between appearing to be peaceful on the surface and experiencing significant social tension. In areas where violent conflict is possible, we often see people pushing for social change, and view them as the most “flammable” or dangerous elements because of their high visibility. However, those who try to maintain an unjust status quo are equally dangerous although they are less visible as they push in the opposite direction to those seeking change. At this stage, there are a number of tasks and activities for peacebuilders.
One activity is engaging in prejudice reduction work with groups at all levels of society, from national leaders to local community members and to children in schools. Prejudice reduction activities focus on identifying and changing negative attitudes towards ethnic, religious, political or other groups who are disliked. Prejudice reduction is one form of violent conflict prevention, because it reduces a source of tension in societies and encourages people to be more accepting of others and their ethnic, cultural, religious and physical differences.
Another peacebuilding activity at this stage is culturally appropriate conflict resolution training. Conflict resolution training is designed to help improve communication patterns
and give people new tools to deal with conflicts productively, to address their differences without resorting to violence. People at all levels and stages of conflict can learn and use
these skills. Conflict resolution skills include mediation, negotiation, problem solving and arbitration, for example. Peacebuilders can support local and national capacities to deal
with conflicts that build on cultural models, such as reviving the use of respected leaders as intermediaries. These local and national capacities can develop new structures to allow grievances to be aired and addressed without the parties resorting to violence. One further role is to assist dialogue between high level leaders; agents for peace can provide “good offices” for meetings between the leaders or act as an intermediary.
A third peacebuilding activity in stage one is non-violent advocacy or advocacy training. Often there are hidden conflict issues in stage one, such as the lack of human rights and
presence of structural violence. Before just, lasting peace can be achieved, these structural issues need to be corrected. Advocacy brings public attention to issues of injustice that may not be well understood, and brings the power of groups to bear, which helps even out political and economic power imbalances without resorting to the power of violent force. Advocacy and advocacy training usually focus on grassroots as well as mid-level leaders, because it provides them with an alternative way to pursue social justice. Advocacy increases the level of tension in societies because it raises controversial issues publicly, and it threatens those in power with change – people in power face the prospect of losing their power and benefits. Peacebuilding, with its focus on relationships and process, stresses the importance of a nonviolent process that is geared to restore broken relationships and transform injustices. In order for advocacy to prevent violent conflict, it is necessary to be aware of the rising tensions and act as far as possible to ensure alternative ways of dealing with the conflicts are used and violence is not initiated. There are numerous training materials developed specifically for advocacy.
Human rights education and training are peacebuilding activities during the first stage of conflict that are often linked to advocacy. The focus here is on creating an awareness of
what a just society looks like by identifying which rights and responsibilities people have. Human rights education, training and advocacy can occur with groups at all levels of the
peacebuilding triangle.
Economic and agricultural development projects are peacebuilding activities in stage one if they help transform structural injustices, social inequities and contribute to building
relationships across lines of tension. Development projects can involve participants from opposing communities in ways that build bridges between the communities, transform
their relationships, prevent violent conflict and lay the foundations for just peace.
Peacebuilding in Stage 2: Limiting What Ignites and Preventing the Flames from Spreading. During Stage 2 the opportunity that those looking for social change were waiting for to shift the power structure or political system may arrive, but it is also the point at which those in power try to desperately hold on to their power and maintain the status quo. Examples of actions that spark conflict include arrests of community leaders, court decisions, protest marches, and assassinations. The method of social action and type of power people use increases or decreases the likelihood that a conflict will escalate into violence. If one party uses armed force, the other party is much more likely to do the same in retaliation. The dynamics of confrontation will also be different if it is a one-time event, versus a series of events.
Possible roles for peacebuilders at this stage include non-violent advocacy and advocacy training, as mentioned above. Advocacy efforts may be located within a particular country, within a region, or part of a global effort. For example, the advocacy efforts to stop countries from producing and using landmines were originally focused within countries, but built up into an international movement that successfully banned anti-personnel landmines at an international convention in 1997. Advocacy efforts like the landmine movement are aimed at top level leaders, including government officials, but are built on earlier advocacy efforts with grassroots, local community groups and mid-level leaders.
Human rights education and training are also peacebuilding activities that can continue during stage two. While people may be more aware of their rights during this stage of conflict, there will be further education, training and advocacy work to be done to achieve a just society.
Encouraging local capacities for building peace and engaging in alternative forms of conflict resolution are very important activities during this stage. These activities can help channel movement for change in non-violent ways that still produce change but prevent mass violence, death and loss. To be effective, these capacities for peace and conflict resolution need to be developed at all three levels of leadership. Specific efforts may include conflict resolution and problem solving workshops. Problem solving is helpful for generating creative alternatives and solutions for the conflict.
During the second stage of conflict, economic and agricultural development projects may continue to be peacebuilding activities. These projects are important for helping provide
livelihoods and build up alternative structures for more just societies. However, it is critical that these projects work on building relationships between conflicting parties and address the underlying issues of injustice. If these relationships and systems are not addressed, all the work spent on creating quality programmes can be lost in the chaos of violence that often erupts. Development projects can be peacebuilding activities by involving participants from opposing communities in ways that build bridges between the communities, transform their relationships, prevent violent conflict and lay the foundations for just peace.
Another type of peacebuilding activity at this stage is providing alternative media and communications sources. This may involve supporting newspapers or newsletters that spread messages for peace, including debunking myths of the “enemy,” telling powerful stories of people reaching out to others across conflict lines, discussions of what justice and mercy call for, or fora for healthy debate. Radio and television stations can also be used to spread messages of peace instead of war, or generate more understanding of opposing view points.
Peacebuilding in Stage 3: Limiting Damage. In Stage 3, violent conflict prevails. War is the most organised form of violent conflict, which involves official governments with highly armed militaries fighting against each other. Civil wars, or “ethno-political” wars (Gurr, T. R., Minorities at Risk: A Clobal View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts, United States Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, 1993) are also devastating, and tend to leave a higher number of civilians, or people who are not members of fighting forces, dead or
wounded. In the last decade of the 20th century, conflicts within countries like Rwanda, former Yugoslavia, and Angola, took a horrific toll. Lives, loved ones, homes and
communities were consumed in this terrible type of fire. At the peak of violent conflicts, there are some unique although very difficult, challenging and often dangerous
activities for peacebuilders. Some of these activities are within Caritas’ and other NGOs’ abilities, and some of them are not.
One type of peacebuilding activity is peacekeeping. This involves putting government military forces, usually under the United Nations (UN) flag, in a conflict between the warring parties. These troops can prevent the conflict from further escalating and give groups some physical and social space to open up political negotiations instead of violent confrontation.
"(This will be) their cry therein: Glory to Thee, O Lord! and 'Peace' will be their
greeting therein! And the close of their cry will be: 'Praise be to God, the Cherisher
and Sustainer of the World!" (Surah X: 10)
greeting therein! And the close of their cry will be: 'Praise be to God, the Cherisher
and Sustainer of the World!" (Surah X: 10)
Advocacy efforts that focus on bringing pressure to bear on the leaders of parties in conflict to stop the violence is another peacebuilding activity during this stage of conflict. This
type of advocacy can be done from outside of the country or inside. International advocacy efforts may push for UN sanctions against a particular government or lobby individual
governments to change their respective foreign policies. The efforts can change the power dynamic within a country as well as the costs and rewards of pursuing violent conflict.
At the local and mid-levels of leadership, agents for peace can act to mitigate or limit the effects of violence. This may include an international monitoring presence, which can limit violence by bringing international attention to human rights violations. Local groups may also monitor the number and types of violent episodes in their communities, however,
often it is more dangerous for them to do so because of their connections to the community and risks to their families.
Peacebuilding activities may also encourage dialogue and cooperation across conflict lines during this stage of conflict. Peacebuilders can act as intermediaries, building up enough trust with the leaders of the conflicting parties to begin either carrying messages from one leader to another, or offering “good offices” so the leaders can meet in a neutral area. As part of a religious organisation, Caritas workers are often very well placed to begin interfaith dialogue.
Another activity that can begin during this stage of conflict, and lasts through the next two stages of conflict is psychosocial support and trauma healing. People, whether they are
directly involved in the fighting and lose limbs, or indirectly involved and lose loved ones, experience a great deal of trauma and stress. It is important to help them deal with their trauma in culturally appropriate ways.
Media and communications activities mentioned above during Stage 2 become even more important in Stage 3 when most media sources superficially focus on sordid details of conflict events, and often incite more fear and violence when they demonise the enemy.
Emergency relief and support are often critical activities during this stage of conflict as people are displaced from their homes and need food, shelter and water. Emergency relief efforts can be conducted in ways that take long-term peacebuilding concerns into account and contribute to strengthening local groups and their abilities to make connections and build relationships for peace.
Peacebuilding in Stage 4: Cooling the Coals. During this stage of conflict, the heat of violence has decreased, and while there are threats of the violence resurging, there is also an opportunity to redirect the parties towards non-violent methods of change and conflict resolution. It takes considerable work to cool the hot emotions and hatreds that exist, but it is during this stage that we see the possibility of social transformation. Peacebuilders can make the difference for a community starting down the path towards peace
rather than further violence. As in the other stages, there are a variety of activities peacebuilders can do.
Peacebuilders can be a part of local reconciliation and peacebuilding organisations, or they can support building capacity at the local level. Strong local organisations and networks of organisations are critical for building a firm foundation for peace in the community. These networks can build horizontally across the peacebuilding triangle, improving relationships between conflicting groups. Networks can also connect people vertically in the peacebuilding triangle, across different leadership levels. Networks allow the efforts of multiple groups working in many different communities to join together and build momentum towards a peace process beyond their individual communities.
[Add figure of triangle with horizontal and vertical arrows]
Another set of peacebuilding activities focuses on economic and agricultural development projects. These projects can reconnect people across conflict lines and are often particularly effective if tied to rebuilding infrastructures that all parties require. Reconstructing the physical infrastructure of a country can also transform relationships and unjust structures in order to ensure that this work is not in vain. Given the fragile nature of peace at this stage, relationships need to be built across the various levels of leadership, although economic and agricultural projects usually focus on the grassroots level.
Work on psychosocial support and trauma counselling continues during stage four. As mentioned in Stage 3, trauma and support for trauma are mediated by culture, and therefore activities have to be culturally based. Other types of physical support will be necessary, including health services, for example for prosthetic limbs, or those exposed to
HIV/AIDS during the conflict.
Peacebuilders can continue to support or develop alternative media and communications to share positive stories and opportunities for peace. At this stage it is important to show
progress towards peace and keep hope for an eventual just peace alive. Hope and visible progress are two important ingredients for helping groups get out of Stage 4 and move
toward sustainable peace and reconciliation.
Demobilising soldiers is an important peacebuilding activity. This involves not only collecting weapons but also helping former soldiers find constructive employment that
generates enough income to survive. Reintegration is part of demobilisation but focuses on re-entry and requires a more holistic community strategy. Removing landmines is also an important task. Often landmines prevent farm fields from being turned to productive use, and threaten the lives of children as they play or farmers as they plough.
Further activities for peacebuilders to explore at this stage include interfaith dialogue, mediation, and peace education for children, among many others.
Peacebuilding in Stage 5: Regeneration. This stage of conflict is usually termed “post-conflict,” or “post-agreement,” because political leaders have taken a few steps towards peace and signed an agreement. However, there continues to be much work for peacebuilders during this stage and it takes many, many years to build peace – at least as many as it took to get into the conflict. Numerous activities listed above in Stage 4 need to continue during Stage 5 when violence no longer threatens.
Helping people deal with post-war trauma continues to be an important activity for peacebuilders, as well as working with media and communications. Peacebuilders can also support reintegrating soldiers and displaced persons or refugees into communities, rebuilding adequate governance and justice systems to deal with everyday problems and organisation, and developing peace education for children.
Post-conflict reconstruction of homes, farms, office buildings, roads and access to basic services like water are needed. While some of this may have begun earlier, conditions are more stable in Stage 5, and so it is easier for this work to continue. Often, considerable chunks of the physical, social, political and economic infrastructures of a country or region have to be rebuilt. As mentioned above, these efforts can further build and help heal relationships by incorporating people from across the former conflict lines, and engaging in a process that uses and recognises contributions from each group.
Micro-finance and agricultural projects are an important part of establishing sustainable economic development. As above, these activities can also work to rebuild and transform relationships by involving people in cooperatives or other joint ventures across conflict lines.
Reconciliation and psycho-social support and healing work between former enemies may begin or continue. Reconciliation is a very long and delicate process. Programmes that focus on reconciliation need to take great care not to further damage relationships or people who have already suffered a great deal. This manual understands reconciliation as a process between individuals, conflicting parties and divided communities, although political leaders often try to incorporate an element of reconciliation into the political process. This public acknowledgement of past wrongs may be very important for allowing a country to rebuild itself. However it does not necessarily mean that people have forgiven each other or that they are personally prepared to try and move beyond past events and injuries.
An alternative way of identifying peacebuilding roles is by using the peacebuilding leadership triangle rather than stages of conflict as the primary organising guide. The picture below identifies some possible peacebuilding roles at the different levels of intervention as well as when they might best be used.
Here, you can find five good lectures on Lederach's level of action.
Source: Adapted from Neufeldt, R., Fast, L., et al., Peacebuilding: A Caritas Training Manual, Vatican City, Caritas Internationalis, 2002, pp. 83-89. The manual is avialable in a free pdf file at www.caritas.org.
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