Publications
The accessible and accountable provision of security and justice is a key requirement for ensuring sustainable peace and economic and social development. In Nepal, there is an urgent need to address issues related to security provision and the security sector as part of the ongoing peace process. Success in security sector reform (SSR) is vital in ensuring the improvements to governance, without which further violent conflict in Nepal is likely. However, given the sensitivities that SSR terminology evokes, thought needs to be given to what can be done in the short term under the banner of public security to lay the groundwork for SSR. If something is not done to address the current public security situation, then any longer-term SSR initiatives will be jeopardised. This briefing forms part of the EU-financed Initiative for Peacebuilding (IfP) It aims to connect the public security and SSR agendas in Nepal in order to inform ongoing discussions amongst donors and to explore the role that the EU could play in future security-enhancing activities in Nepal.
Women peacebuilders in various conflict-affected countries face very similar challenges as they attempt to integrate women’s interests in peacebuilding policy processes and civil society actors from different countries can potentially learn a lot from exchanging experiences with each other. This report outlines the findings and recommendations of a workshop with representatives from Burundian and Sierra Leonean civil society organisations working in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment organised by International Alert on 25th to 29th February 2008. The aim of the five-day workshop was to exchange experiences, discuss common challenges and strengthen future collaboration in order to support the integration of gender-related priorities into peacebuilding processes. Throughout the workshop, a number of key policy issues relevant to civil society actors in both countries were raised. A central concern across all issues was the challenge that civil society organisations face in attempting to integrate gender perspectives into peacebuilding policies, particularly security-related activities, and then effectively monitoring the implementation of these policies. The workshop resulted in a number of findings and recommendations that can be built on to ensure enhanced support for women’s organizations to monitor and advocate for the inclusion of gender perspectives in peacebuilding processes.
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.
The attention and interest of the various stakeholders in rebuilding Northern Uganda’s economy as part of peace and recovery present critically important opportunities for positive change and a move to sustainable peace in the region, following years of economic decline and underdevelopment during the decades of conflict. But how strategic are these plans, given the challenges that persist, and when seen from a peacebuilding perspective? Are the opportunities to address root causes, immediate consequences, and ongoing threats of war being seized? What are the unforeseen risks of a re-emergence of conflict posed by some approaches? And how can these best be mitigated?
This first issue of International Alert’s Investing in Peace briefing paper series seeks to answer these questions, in order to serve as a stimulus to more conflict-sensitive policy and practice. Its intended audience are policy-makers and implementers in central and local government, as well as development partners (including NGOs), and private sector local to, or doing business in, the region. In order to contextualise its analysis, the report presents an overview of the political economy of war in Northern Uganda, before proceeding to review the different interventions being made or proposed for the region’s economic recovery.
This is the report of a consultation workshop jointly organised by International Alert and the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) in partnership with the Women and Gender Studies Department at Makerere University. The workshop is part of a regional research project aimed at assessing the impact of women’s political participation in countries emerging from conflict in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. The workshop was attended by members of civil society, parliamentarians, provincial governors, and International Alert and EASSI partners from Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. The discussions focused amongst others, on issues such as the nature of women’s participation, factors facilitating women’s participation in political transition processes and hindrances and constraints to women’s participation.
Voluntary Principles for Security and Human Rights provide a broad framework that can help companies operate in ways that provide security to their facilities while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. Several companies have developed their own guidelines to implement the principles. In this paper, International Alert, a founding member of the VP process, has developed performance indicators for companies, to help establish benchmarks in the longer term.
This report was produced as a background paper for CHD’s Oslo Forum, an annual gathering of senior international conflict mediators. This paper will discuss the diverse roles played by the private sector during Track 1 peace processes in particular, drawing on a variety of examples from different contexts. These examples illustrate that where the private sector enjoys credibility (sometimes higher than state parties), has access to conflict parties, and a strategic interest in the resolution of a conflict, it can become actively involved and have significant impact on the course of a peace process, for better or worse.
This briefing outlines the key findings of the recent study on Enhancing the EU Response to Women and Armed Conflict commissioned by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU, and discusses the recommendations in relation to the European Commission. Although the EU has repeatedly committed itself to the need for the full implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, current EU interventions in conflict-affected contexts lack a clear gender and conflict analysis and women continue to be marginalised from peacebuilding initiatives.
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.
This is the report of a consultation workshop jointly organised by International Alert and the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) in partnership with the Women and Gender Studies Department at Makerere University. The workshop is part of a regional research project aimed at assessing the impact of women’s political participation in countries emerging from conflict in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. The workshop was attended by members of civil society, parliamentarians, provincial governors, and International Alert and EASSI partners from Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. The discussions focused amongst others, on issues such as the nature of women’s participation, factors facilitating women’s participation in political transition processes and hindrances and constraints to women’s participation.
This paper aims to provide initial thoughts and options for integrating conflict-sensitive approaches (CSA) into value chain analysis and interventions in conflict situations. It uses a value chain framework as a starting point and explores how CSA can be applied to the analysis both of different levels and the various components of the chain. While the focus is on the initial analysis stage of a project cycle, the paper also presents preliminary points for practitioners to bear in mind in implementation. The paper is structured to cover three aspects of conflict-sensitivity as they relate to value chain analysis: (i) Conflict analysis; (ii) Identifying value chain/conflict interactions; (iii) Options for project design and implementation based on (i) and (ii)
This report focuses on the EU’s response to the "Women and Armed Conflict" (WAC) study, in particular on the development cooperation dimension. The report describes international approaches and legal obligations to WAC, identifies and discusses the most salient issues, gives an overview and assessment of the EU response and provides findings and recommendations. Examples or cases from Sierrra Leone, Uganda, the DRC, Kosovo and Burundi are included as well as thematic cases on sexual and gender based violence, local advocates for accountability on WAC, national action plans associated with WAC and regional approaches to WAC.
Voluntary Principles for Security and Human Rights provide a broad framework that can help companies operate in ways that provide security to their facilities while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. Several companies have developed their own guidelines to implement the principles. In this paper, International Alert, a founding member of the VP process, has developed performance indicators for companies, to help establish benchmarks in the longer term.
This tool provides an introduction to the benefits and opportunities of integrating gender issues into national-level security policy making. As strategic documents, security policies are critically important in establishing a coordinated response to security threats, and can serve as a platform for security sector reform (SSR) processes. Ensuring that gender issues are integrated into security policies may increase participation and local ownership, and create policies and institutions that are more likely to effectively and sustainably provide security and justice to men, women, girls and boys on an equitable basis. The tool is designed to be a resource for staff responsible for initiating security policy-making processes within the executive branch of government, including those responsible for drafting, implementing and evaluating security policies. In addition, the tool may be useful to a variety of other actors involved in security policy-making processes, including parliamentarians and parliamentary staffers, ministerial staff, civil society organisations, municipallevel government, international and regional organisations, and donor countries supporting the development of security policies.
This tool is designed to be a resource for civil society organisations (CSOs) engaged in oversight of the security sector, as well as those CSOs that seek to play a more active role in this regard. The tool is also relevant for policymakers and officials in national governments, international and regional organisations, and donor countries around the world that are engaged in designing and implementing security sector reforms and that could play an active role in strengthening and supporting civil society engagement.
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.
General introduction to International Alert brochure
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.
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. It explores how peacebuilding can be put at the heart of efforts to create shared economic opportunities in the east, notwithstanding the immense challenges faced by donors in such conflict-affected environments.
