International Institutions

Alert engages regularly with a wide range of departments across the UK government, particularly in the Department of International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). We work with UK officials both as an individual organisation and also collectively with other conflict prevention NGO partners through the Peace and Security Liaison Group. PSLG members, for example, have been engaged in a process of mapping of the UK Government’s Conflict and Security Policy to look at how the UK Government has responded over the past five years to changing security needs, particularly in its international policy, and to understand how far conflict prevention/ peacebuilding has been integrated into broader government thinking. The PSLG has also sought to influence the Government Public Service Agreement on conflict prevention and resolution from late 2007.

In its individual advocacy, Alert focuses on the UK Government’s policies, funding streams and institutional set-up that determine how effectively it can contribute to peacebuilding, including through the UK’s operationalisation of UN SCR 1325 (see the section on the UN).

DFID has recently launched its fourth White Paper, potentially the most ambitious reform of the way British aid is designed and delivered since 1997.

Ahead of its publication, our Secretary General, Dan Smith, has met with the Secretary of State for International Development to give advice on the options for changing the way the British Government approaches overseas development aid for conflict affected and fragile states. Similar discussions were undertaken with DFID senior officials.

Alert has been calling for a fundamental reform of the way the UK delivers overseas aid to conflict affected countries and this White Paper, while not going as far as we would have liked, does offer a huge opportunity to harness the potential of UK aid to build peace. See our submission to DFID here.

Ahead of the General Election taking place in 2010, we recently hosted a series of debates on what sort of support is needed by conflict affected states with parliamentarians at each of the political party conferences. Find out more

Going forward, our work will remain focused on the extent to which this kind of knowledge is integrated into spending plans and programming, and the degree to which the commitments are put into practice.

As a financier and as provider of often quite forceful policy and technical advice, the World Bank:

• has very substantial direct and inadvertent impacts on local and national economic systems and governance. (These can be negative or positive);
• influences the direction and characteristics of other aid and investment flows;
• leverages interest and activities on the part of governments who are accessing, or seeking to access, external sources of funds.

Moreover, despite recent ructions involving the Bank president, some argue that the Bank’s role and influence will increase further in the coming years. This is because influential voices in the donor development community are currently arguing the need to 'multilateralise' development assistance and Finance Ministers may push for this in order to reduce the high transaction costs of aid incurred by bilateral donors.

International Alert is currently deepening its analysis of the Bank’s engagement in fragile and conflict-affected countries. We are continuing to explore the structures and procedures in Washington DC and between HQ and country offices which affect decision-making. We are also looking at ground level impacts and partnerships in the context of new initiatives such as the Statebuilding and Peacebuilding Fund and the Governance and Anti-corruption Implementation Plan. The country cases for Alert are primarily Burundi, Nepal and Sri Lanka, where the Bank and other donors face very different governance and conflict challenges.

Our primary interest is in the institutional incentives and performance criteria for Bank staff and how they design and implement Bank programmes in-country (and across sub-regions). We aim to assist the process of adapting these to the acute development challenges in 40-50 countries worldwide dubbed ‘fragile’. The ultimate goal is to help improve the Bank’s ability to reduce state and societal fragility and prevent violent conflict.

With a clear security mandate and numerous conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities across the world, the United Nations is the most prevalent and, arguably, visible multilateral institution in countries experiencing or emerging from violent conflict. International Alert has been working with and lobbying the UN on various issues but, with the creation of the new Peacebuilding Commission, we now have an opportunity to target our efforts more closely.

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) was established in December 2005 to help countries in post-conflict peacebuilding, recovery, reconstruction and development. Since it began its work in mid-2006, the PBC has been seen by International Alert and others as an opportunity to build peace more effectively. The Commission’s first activities are now well underway, focusing initially on Burundi and Sierra Leone. In the light of International Alert’s long-standing peacebuilding experience in Central and West Africa, we have been closely following the development of the PBC. In addition, Alert’s Secretary General, Dan Smith, has been selected as one of 10 members of the Advisory Group overseeing the UN’s new Peacebuilding Fund, which will provide financial resources for peacebuilding activities.

In late 2006 Alert submitted recommendations for how the PBC should prioritise its work both generically and in Burundi specifically. We identified priority areas for policy dialogue and sustained commitment to change, such as the independence and impartiality in the justice systems and the mitigation of tensions over land and gender equality.

Alert will continue to provide our advice and expertise to optimise the PBC’s ability to improve the situation of those suffering from conflict and insecurity. Currently the most important message for the PBC is not to rush the adoption of hastily drafted peacebuilding strategies, but to ensure that, through consultation with all relevant stakeholders, clear goals, objectives, indicators and targets are identified. For the PBC to make a difference, the roadmap has to be identifiable and credible.

At International Alert, our work with the UN on gender issues has evolved from our campaign with other organisations beginning in 1999 which successfully advocated for the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in October 2000. This is a watershed political framework that emphasises a gender perspective and the pursuit of gender equality in all aspects of peacebuilding.

Alert continues to work to ensure the full implementation of SCR 1325 by the UN – not least within the UN Peacebuilding Commission. Gender equality and a stronger emphasis on SCR 1325 were among the top priorities we have been advocating for with the PBC. In addition, as a founding member and instrumental voice in the UN NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, Alert has carried out a number of high-profile advocacy events to, among other things, bring the voices of Burundian and Sierra Leonean women to PBC decision-makers at UN Headquarters in New York. You can read about the event here.

For more information on Resolution 1325 and the PBC, download the NGO Working Group’s 2006 report: SCR 1325 and the Peacebuilding Commission.

The EU was established as a peacebuilding mechanism for Europe after the Second World War. Today, as a union of 27 Member States, it is a major international peacebuilding actor with a common commitment to build ‘a secure and peaceful world.’ Equal to the United States in economic strength, it is the world’s largest trading bloc, the biggest global humanitarian and development donor and is present in more than 120 countries, over a third of which are affected by conflict.

International Alert aims to improve the effectiveness of the EU’s effort to prevent violent conflict. The primary vehicle for this is the Initiative for Peacebuilding, a partnership which includes 10 European organizations that are expert in identifying the challenges and recommending ways forward.

1. policy dialogue, both with partner governments and with other key actors inside and outside the region (such as Russia, China and India). Dialogue covers a number of policy areas ranging from energy and trade to governance and human rights.
2. economic incentives, such as closer co-operation, preferential access to EU markets and support for loans and investments. The reciprocal Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the African, Carribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, entering into force on 1 January 2008, have enormous significance in this regard.
3. development assistance provided through budget lines for technical assistance and aid for humanitarian and development purposes and orientated through the elaboration of Regional and Country Strategy Papers.
4. security-, Rule of Law- and public administration-related interventions under the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and under short-term actions put in place with Community (1st pillar) financing.

The EU’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of its contribution to peacebuilding are manifested in a wide variety of statements, communications and other documents. Foremost among these is the Programme of Action for the Prevention of Violent Conflict set out in Gothenburg in 2001. This is being complemented by emerging institutional generic work on Fragile States and Situations as well as region-specific approaches such as the EU-Africa Strategy. Internal guidelines have also been circulated within the Commission to promote systematic attention to conflict prevention and crisis management and a check-list of root causes of conflict has been produced. However, greater political will, capacity building and technical expertise is needed to put existing policy commitments into practice and further improve the effectiveness of the EU’s contribution to peacebuilding.

By doing this we aim to ensure that the EU addresses the long-term root causes and evolving drivers of violent conflict and puts the goal of peacebuilding at the centre of its policy and institutional practices. This requires coherent structures and strategies across all EU policy and practice that are informed by the people who are affected by conflict.

• Providing expert advice to the EU Presidencies and other relevant EU and Member State officials on policy, training, tools development and events
• Facilitating dialogue between EU representatives and civil society from Europe and conflict-affected countries, between Presidencies and across the EU institutions and Member States
• Policy analysis and recommendation through the production of joint position papers and briefings
• Advocacy initiatives including organisation of seminars, launches and media events in London, Brussels and other EU capitals Monitoring, consultation and research on critical conflict issues and progress of EU conflict prevention policy and practice in Brussels and countries affected by conflict

International Alert also works within a number of networks and partnerships to promote peacebuilding within and amongst the EU: