War

Dear Colleagues/Experts,       The International Peace and Development Training Center (IPDTC) is inviting expert professionals, policy makers and practitioners for its upcoming Autumn Programs. The programmes are designed for UN agencies, governments and national and international organisations....

The statistics on sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are grim. Recent studies have estimated that women are raped at a rate of nearly one per minute. Although Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) has received significant attention, and much is being done in response, the problem persists....

  This paper reports on an advanced research workshop that took place in April 2007 on Evaluation of Community based Psychosocial Programmes in Areas A¡ected by War and Terrorism. The workshop was sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The three day workshop was set up to bring together a wide range of stakeholders in psychosocial programmes in areas affected by war and terrorism from providers of those programmes.The focus of the workshop was programme evaluation and the methodology adopted by its organisers....

This evaluation was commissioned by a Steering Committee of bilateral cooperation donors and aid agencies, to review conflict prevention and peacebuilding policies in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Drawing on examples from a portfolio of projects funded by Steering Committee members, the evaluation is designed to provide general conclusions relevant to all international interventions in the eastern DRC. A team of fifteen consultants representing eight nationalities was deployed to design and carry out the evaluation over a period of twelve months between 2009-2010....

Peace processes are negotiations between adversaries that assist a transformation of a society's conflict dynamics. Determining how best to support these processes has always been a challenge for development personnel. USAID has worked on creating strategies for constructively interacting with conflict dynamics within the wider ecology of local, interagency, and international actors. This toolkit is grounded in a comprehensive survey of USAID peace process activities to compile lessons about program success or failure....

The impact of war on populations arises both from the direct effects of combat and from the indirect consequences of war, which may occur for several years after a conflict ends. Nowadays, in this globalized world where monitoring and evaluating the impact of interventions has become a priority, looking at the conflicts as causes of health problems, mental diseases and disabilities is fundamental to plan better strategies in advance and preserve military’s wellbeing. ...

Search for Common Ground has been working in Nepal since February 2006 with the mission to transform the way the world deals with conflict: away from adversarial approaches, toward cooperative solutions. With a multi-pronged program to support the peace process, SFCG combines media with community peacebuilding work that translates into the production of two nationally and 17 locally broadcast radio programs and community-based activities with youth, children and other key actors in the peace process. ...

This evaluation assesses Norway’s peace efforts in Sri Lanka from 1997 to 2009. It tells the story of Norway’s engagement, assesses the effects and identifies broader implications and lessons. The analysis is based on interviews with key informants, an in-depth perusal of ministry archives in Oslo, several subsidiary studies, and a review of relevant research, secondary literature and the Sri Lankan press. ...

A critical assessment of the peace-building impact of CARE International’s interventions in the NW Balkans during the period 1998-2008, by means of the review CARE project portfolio 1998-2008 (project objectives, scope and key results), based on documentation provided by CARE.  ...

This research explores the theories of change (TOCs) and underlying assumptions of six peacebuilding initiatives of six organisations in Nepal: Alliance for Peace (AfP), CARE Nepal, International Alert, Search For Common Ground (SFCG), Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) and Youth Action Nepal (YOAC Nepal)....

The Children’s Voices, a UNICEF co-funded project, was established at the first national-level DDR working group, the Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups (CAAFAG) Working Group. The project aimed to provide a platform for children and youth’s voices in the transition to peace so as to prevent the further manipulation of youth to violence....

Whereas the more traditional measure of progress against the plan will generally focus upon the fast dynamics in the environment, purposeful assessment must also include assessment of the slow processes in the community. In addition, Purposeful assessment must not focus simply on those effects that have been considered within planning but must consider all effects that may have an impact on the success of the intervention.    ...

This report, sponsored by the Center for Conflict Management at the U.S. Institute of Peace, draws on comparative research literature on peace processes to identify lessons applicable to Afghanistan and makes recommendations to the international community, the Afghan government, and Afghan civil society for ensuring a more comprehensive, successful, and sustainable peace process. Research for this paper was undertaken during five trips to Kabul, Afghanistan, and one trip to Pakistan between 2009 and 2011....

Since 2007 Search for Common Ground (SFCG) has worked with the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC). The project: “Tomorrow is a New Day” is funded by the Dutch Government and has three primary objectives: Raising awareness: Fostering an increased awareness of human rights, conflict transformation principles, and the Military Code among the target brigades. Fighting Impunity: Contributing to the fight against impunity by engaging the FARDC in denouncing violations, monitoring cases before military courts, and implementing an effective media outreach strategy. Collaboration and Solidarity: Improving military-civilian relations by garnering mutual respect and an understanding of human rights, via joint cultural, sporting, dialogue, collaborative action, and income generating activities.  In order to achieve these objectives, the project draws upon high-visibility ‘solidarity activities,’ as well as sensitization sessions for FARDC troops, participatory theatre performances, mobile cinema screenings, and large-scale radio and television multi-media outreach. ...