International Alert: Asia

ASIA

Overview
Publications

We have been working in Asia since 1988. Our work has ranged from addressing the role that business can play in bringing peace, to supporting formal peace negotiations. At all times our approach has been to base our peacebuilding work on a strategic and coordinated understanding of conflict in all its complexity.

We are now starting to harness our experience in specific Asian conflicts towards understanding the broader dynamics of conflict in the region. The 2004 tsunami tragedy has added impetus to this more regional outlook and we are beginning to explore how aid can be provided in a way that neither adds to the sense of inequality and frustration that stands behind so many of the conflicts in the region, nor inadvertently supports and entrenches the systems and structures that lie at the root of civil war.

We work through:

Supporting the efforts of those involved in formal peace negotiations through impartial support to the third party facilitators and consultation with all sides
Capacity building for those involved in non-formal peace initiatives through training in negotiation and other peacebuilding methods
Promoting and creating awareness of peace processes, good governance and fair elections.
Research, analysis and advocacy on conflict related issues with local partners, helping them to get their messages heard by decision-makers

COUNTRY PROGRAMMES

NEPAL
In Nepal, Alert brings together civil society, business and the development community to support the on-going peace process, helping to build Nepali society's capacity to establish a sustainable, peaceful future.

PHILIPPINES
Our Philippines programme has been running since 1988, structured around the annual Waging Peace Conference. Our work also covers good governance, security sector reform, and support for the peace negotiations.

SRI LANKA
From our earliest days we have been contributing to the effort to build peace in Sri Lanka. Today we focus on building links between chambers of commerce from across the island and supporting the Sri Lanka First business alliance.

For more information, contact Mais Yacoub

MORE
Asia overview

COUNTRY PROGRAMMES
Nepal
Philippines
Sri Lanka

SPOTLIGHT

India and its neighbours: Do economic interests have the potential to build peace?

India and its neighbours

A report that investigates the linkages between India's growing regional and global influence and peacebuilding in South Asia, with a particularly focus on conflicts in Sri Lanka and Nepal.
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PUBLICATIONS ON ASIA

Consolidating Peace. Nepali Constitution-Making: A Filipino Peace Practitioner’s Perspective

Author(s): Ed Garcia
2008-11

This report reflects some of the perspectives and lessons learned from the Philippine-Nepal Exchange on the Peace Aspects of Constitution-making that took place in Kathmandu in August 2008. The report includes pertinent lessons from the Philippines experience of constitution-making from the perspectives of a Filipino peace practitioner, who served as a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Philippines Constitution. It also reflects on debate and opinions amoung Nepali Constitutional Assembly members, constitutional experts, political party and government representatives, international organisations and a diverse range of civil society thinkers and activists in Nepal.
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The World Bank in fragile and conflict-affected countries: ‘How’, Not ‘How Much’

Author(s): Edward Bell
2008-05

This study outlines the particular development challenges confronting international actors in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and gives a summary of the World Bank’s evolving approach to those challenges. The study then sets out certain key problems which, despite recent improvements, continue to reduce the quality of the Bank’s impacts. Noting the inconsistencies in the Bank’s approaches, it assesses the factors that determine the Bank’s ability to deal with, and help address, the immense complexity of its operating environments. It concludes with recommendations for improving approaches to those complexities.
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Youth Perspectives on Community Security in the Eastern Terai

Author(s): International Alert
2008-01

The aim of this paper is to outline the key community security concerns voiced by young people in Morang and Sunsari districts and reflect these voices upto policy and decision makers at the national level.
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Voices from the villages: Peoples’ agendas for peace

Author(s): Shiva K Dhungana, Narad N Bharadwaj, Rebecca Crozier, Dr Natalie Hicks
2007-11

This report aims to inform policy-makers, Civil Society Organizations, I/NGOs and donors engaged in peacebuilding of the dynamics of conflict at the local level and the agendas of a wide variety of stakeholders for sustainable peace in Nepal.
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Youth Speak out on Community Security in the Eastern Terai - English

Author(s): Friends for Peace and International Alert
2007-11

This paper aims to summarise the key community security concerns and issues that were voiced by youth and student groups in consultations carried out in Sunsari and Morang districts between the 25th September and the 5th November 2007. Voluntary ‘Youth Steering Committees’, comprising active and knowledgeable youth stakeholders, have played a key role as representatives for their district and in steering the project process. Local level interactions were then held in order to understand the particular issues facing rural youth. The paper looks first at the community security issues affecting youth in the two districts, then moves on to explore ways in which respondents felt that the current situation of unrest and insecurity could be changed.
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