Environmental Peacebuilding
It is not only climate change that has a negative impact on the environment. Economic actors’ business activities may often bring about irreversible collateral damage on natural habitats. If this is the case in fragile and conflict situations conflict and violence may be exacerbated. A conflict-sensitive and rights-based approach to business activities are essential to […]
The Climate, Security & Peace Nexus
Why is climate change a critical factor for peacebuilding? How are the fields of climate change, conflict prevention and peacebuilding interlinked? As shown in the example of Kenya, peacebuilding is necessary for communities to cope with the effects of climate change, including resource and land conflicts, and to prevent the negative synergy between climate change […]
Sustaining peace and sustained headwinds:
As climate-related security threats are emerging more frequently and intensely, the United Nations (UN) has begun to include climate considerations in its peace and security work. This developing agenda is currently confronted with multiple challenges: First, due to the topic’s relatively recent emergence, there is an ongoing search for an institutional anchoring point within the […]
The effectiveness of low-tech tools in digital peacebuilding
With conflict increasingly shifting to virtual spaces, peacebuilders need to expand their efforts and reach out to conflict stakeholders and peace constituencies offline as well as online. New threats such as online gender-based violence and disinformation and what these altered conflict dynamics impose on the non-digital world have to be tackled, too. ACFODE’s work on […]
Staying connected against all odds
As a result of the global pandemic, the partners of KURVE Wustrow in Myanmar have rapidly digitised their project work. The examination of experiences and consequences of this change, however, cannot be separated from the even more recent political developments of the military takeover. The subsequent violent crackdowns and widespread civic and in parts armed […]
It really isn’t JUST about the technology
Empowering local communities and giving them agency in the peacebuilding process is the key to overall success. By pairing up online strategies with offline strategies we can achieve maximum impact. Ushahidi’s story illustrates the importance of an inclusive approach, where citizen are active participants in the peacebuilding process. In conversations about digitalization, it comes naturally […]
Can we learn from Ukraine to prevent future escalations?
What is happening in the fields of Ukraine, becomes a reason not to abandon the project of transitional justice, but a challenge to envision routes toward it. Instead of focusing on discrete scenarios, we may need to examine what lays beyond the current center of attention. Truth-telling based on comprehensive documentation as well as establishing […]
„Prevention is the first imperative of justice“
Transitional justice can contribute to prevention of violence and abuse, particularly if it addresses common drivers such as exclusion and associated grievances. It can facilitate the inclusion of social groups that have suffered human rights violations and marginalization, and promote long-term reform of institutions, laws, and ideologies. The relationship of civil society to the state […]
The past should not dictate the future
“We need to address both the extent to which historical events shape the collective emotions and worldviews of the present, and the extent to which power-hungry politicians are willing to manipulate those emotions and instrumentalize those worldviews to lend the appearance of legitimacy to their political goals.” – Werner Wintersteiner In February 2022, in the first […]
The case of the Water, Peace and Security partnership.
Water security is deteriorating worldwide. How are water scarcity and conflicts connected? And how can joint expertise and collaboration in water management help in such situations? The Water, Peace and Security (WPS) Partnership argues that a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder response is required to successfully address water-related tensions. People are interconnected through water and multiple stakeholder […]
