Peacebuilding in Developing Countries

Panel 4

Surviving Armed Violence and Building Peace

Chair: Volker Boege, Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies

Discussant: Tobias Debiel, Institute for Development and Peace, University of Duisburg Essen, Germany

Albie Sharpe: Health Security Interventions in Sri Lanka: Evaluating the Peace-Building Outcome

The broad-based Japanese human security framework, introduced in the late 1990s as the organising principle of its overseas development aid (ODA) policy, emphasizes a dual focus on both protection and empowerment with the overall goal of peace-building. This framing of human security makes it particularly useful as a means of implementing health promotion interventions, and mirrors the approach defined in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. The goal of this research is to examine the ways in which health promotion projects within development settings can contribute to peace-building, and to establish indicators for project evaluation. This research examines the effectiveness of the Japanese ODA policy within the Sri Lankan context - with specific reference to programs aimed at increasing health security. The research comprised a literature review and interviews with Japanese ODA workers engaged in health-security related projects in Sri-Lanka. One of the major research findings was that Japanese ODA workers have few means of assessing the peace-building impacts of the health-related development work that they do. Therefore new methods need to be utilised and implemented. The Health and Peace-building Filter (HPBF), developed by the University of NSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine, may provide a means of evaluating the peace-building outcomes of health promotion interventions, and establish a basis for establishing effectiveness of human security-related development in post-conflict Sri Lanka.

Aime Saba: Preventing Conflicts in Africa through Democracy-building? An analysis of recent developments

The recent outbursts of political violence following constitutional and democratic crises in Niger, Guinea, Central Africa, Madagascar, and Kenya are warnings that a democratic culture is as necessary as democratic institutions if conflicts and violence - whether direct, cultural or structural - are to prevented or transformed in Africa. deeper analysis of conflict resolution approaches of democratization severely questions the premise that democracy inevitably leads to peaceful societies. This paper will survey current and recent examples throughout the African continent, mainly countries transitioning from authoritarianism, or emerging from violent conflict and which are undergoing democratisation. I will argue that democratization and governance are much more complex, situational and problematic than theory would suggest. Indeed, it (democratisation) may well hold promise for resolving conflicts and creating stable societies but the main reason that it has not successfully done so it many parts of Africa (and indeed in many other parts of the world) is that the democratic culture has not been inculcated into the ruling elites and the middle classes: that it must be based upon the rule of law and supported by the principles of meaningful citizenship, inclusiveness, and equity. 

The paper will argue that there is urgency to re-thinking peacebuilding activities through democracy-building. For many post-colonial nations, the process of state-building is still unfinished.  One of the questions I ask is why domestic and external actors are incapable of cooperation (the current mediation efforts of Kofi Annan in Kenya are a testimony to this) in crafting new tools and institutions to build, strengthen and/or reform democratic systems and cultures in these politically complex environments.

Helen Ware: West Africa: What is known of the relationship between peace & development

The West African region has had extensive experience of warfare in recent years but not all countries have hosted armed conflict on their own soil. This means that the region provides a number of natural experiments involving neighbouring countries with different experiences of development, governance, war and peace. The aim of this paper is to explore for the West African case what is known of the relationship between development and peace examining the linkages in both directions. There have been some econometric studies in this area but the goal to go beyond these in taking cultural and political factors into account.  The source materials include national and regional statistics and interviews with academics across the region. The conclusion discusses the common factors and the divergencies across the region and what can be learnt from them.

CV. Helen  Ware is  Professor of Peacebuilding at the University of New England and co-director of the Centre for Peace and Indigenous Development. She currently supervises 3 PhD students who are researching conflict in  West Africa in the field She is a former Australian Ambassador/  High Commissioner to Angola, Malawi, Namibia and Zambia. She has extensive experience of working with AusAID the Australian Government's aid agency including 3 years as Senior Education Adviser. She also spent ten years as the field director of a project on social change in Africa, which worked jointly with local researchers in twelve African countries.

Cate Buchanan: Surviving armed violence: Developing a research agenda, and evidence base for policy and programming

Armed violence results in a range of social, economic, political, health, cultural and security impacts, with disability, chronic disease, impairment, mental health disorders, risky behaviour and trauma regarded as both indirect and direct consequences. Armed violence, including the use and misuse of guns and explosives, is a leading cause of impairment and disability. Weapons are also critical ‘enablers' of other forms of violence, including sexual violence and torture.

Yet little information is available on the numbers and circumstances-physical, mental economic, social or political-of survivors of armed violence. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), "[g]lobal data on the impact of small arms on the health of individuals are far from complete. What data is available, however, suggests that hundreds of thousands of people are killed each year by those weapons. Millions more survive their injuries but are left with permanent physical disabilities and mental health problems."[1] Victims of violence are themselves at increased risk of committing violence, providing a powerful rationale for directing more attention and resources to their care.[2]

The gendered consequences are particularly significant: the majority of direct victims and survivors worldwide are young men, while the majority of carers appear to be women.

This paper will draw upon research undertaken in Burundi and El Salvador as well as highlight other information-and knowledge gaps-illustrating the potential scale of impairment and disability from gun violence, particularly in low income or violence-affected settings. It will conclude with suggestions for further research.

Aurangzaib Alizai: Renegotiating Gendered Ideologies during Forced Displacement

Forced displacement has a differential impact on both women and men, which can differ at various stages of crisis. Women are disproportionately disadvantaged because of their subordinate position, socio-cultural norms, unequal power relations and their role as the ‘primary caretaker' of the household and family. Conflict-displacement on the other hand provides an opportunity to ‘renegotiate' gendered power structures, patriarchal norms and notions of masculinity and femininity. While ensuring the survival of their families in hostile and unfamiliar circumstances of displacement, women bear the main financial burden of providing for the family and take up non-traditional roles. Although this research study suggests that this ‘gender role reversal' has not combined with an ideological shift, women status outside the household remains subordinate in relation to men. Patriarchal norms which entrench ideological basis are placed at the heart of the issue.