English

This publication is one of the chapters of the book 'Human Security and Business' (Ruffer & Rub, 2008) which includes the papers highlighting important considerations concerning business and human rights. This publication points out the interconnectedness of severe human rights abuses in violent conflict with certain corporate practices, drawing on examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and shows that voluntary initiatives alone are not enough to ensure that companies, particularly in the extractive sector, act as per the law or best practices.

Chapter

New strategy papers for the EU's engagement with developing countries will soon be agreed. The activities under them will have fundamental impacts on the contexts in which they will be applied, and many of these are prone to, or affected by, violent conflict, or experience some kind of societal or state fragility.

Briefing paper

This report is based on a discussion held in conjunction with GAPS and the High Commission for Canada on involving men in the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325. It focuses on how and why SCR 1325 is relevant to men, as well as broader efforts to build sustainable peace. It explores strategies to increase their engagement with work around SCR 1325 at the UK and international levels.

Full report

Coffee farming plays a vital role in the Burundian economy. It is the main industry and export product of the country and provides important income for the roughly 600,000 families (about 40% of the population) who grow it. Reforms of the coffee sector have continued with greater deregulation and privatization, but this process takes places in a specific political and economic context: on the one hand there is a new democratically elected government and generalized poverty which has been aggravated by 10 years of civil war.

Full report

This is the fourth issue of International Alert's newsletter.

In this issue:

• Liberia’s peace and cultural festival
• New projects support the role of women peacebuilders
• Train for a career in peacebuilding
• Reintegrating ex-combatants
• Launch of conflictsensitivity.org
• Peaceworker profile
• Cross-conflict learning in Cyprus
• New publications 

Update 4

International Alert works with communities affected by violent conflict to end the fighting and build a peace which will last. Our unique, multi-faceted approach draws upon our field programmes and our thematic research to influence decision-making and shape peace processes. We also work to increase the expertise of peacebuilding practitioners and the profile of the peacebuilding sector through training and outreach.

Full report

From July 4th-14th 2006, International Alert conducted a mapping of the incidence of GBV and the programmes that are being implemented to address it in Sierra Leone on behalf of Irish Aid. Historically, women have been discriminated against and are heavily under-represented in the traditionally male-dominated political and socio-economic decision-making structures of Sierra Leone.

Full report

International Alert (hereafter Alert) and Friends for Peace (FFP) began focusing on community security in mid-2006 in an effort to understand and address community security as a conflict prevention measure in support of sustainable conditions for peace and development.

Full report

Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a significant oil boom and the injection of large amounts of revenues from oil, gas and mineral extraction presents an enormous challenge. This money should serve as a basis for economic growth and poverty reduction across Africa, yet history shows that resource revenues have not generally contributed to better development outcomes.

Full report

One key weakness of the current peace process in Nepal is the failure to address diverse and complex security needs at the local level, while focusing instead on the issues of national security over community security, and physical security over human security. The peace process has therefore failed to address a fundamental underlying cause of the conflict - the ingrained culture of exclusivity that characterises every arena of public life in Nepal and which perpetuates the insecurity of many vulnerable and marginalised groups.

Full report

Until a decade ago, India was regarded largely as a poor developing country with low visibility on the global political and economic front. A multitude of factors, most prominently its emerging global economic strength, have led India not only to redefine its self-image but also to adopt a new political role both internationally and within its immediate neighbourhood.

Full report

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.

English - Youth Speak out on Community Security in the Eastern Terai

Nepali - Youth Speak out on Community Security in the Eastern Terai

The failure of Nepal's nascent peace process to address the diverse peace needs of marginalized and excluded communities at the grassroots level threatens to undermine possibilities for long-term sustainable peace in the country. Nepalese society has long been characterized by multiple forms of exclusion, divided along fault lines of, inter alia, ethnicity, caste, gender and economic status. Exclusion, in its multifarious forms, is widely recognized to be a major contributing factor to the past decade of conflict in Nepal.

Full report

This report focuses on economic recovery as a central pillar of peacebuilding in eastern DRC and, in particular, the role of the European Commission in supporting such processes. It argues that the drivers of fragility and instability must be addressed if meaningful long term economic recovery is to be realised. The report is based on field work carried out in South Kivu and Ituri, and draws on research by Alert’s partner in Bukavu, CEGEC.

Full report

Climate change is upon us and its physical effects have started to unfold. That is the broad scientific consensus expressed in the Fourth Assessment Review of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. This report takes this finding as its starting point and looks at the social and human consequences that are likely to ensue – particularly the risks of conflict and instability.

Full report