Burundi

This series of three country “Insights” identifies peacebuilding priorities in Burundi, Liberia and Nepal, and discusses the response of the international institutions operating there.  The focus institutions are primarily the World Bank and the UN. The insights provide a brief snapshot and analysis of each country’s particular peacebuilding needs, as well as the dynamics that either facilitate or hinder institutional ability to address these needs.

Full report

Why is development progress difficult in fragile and conflict-affected countries?  International Alert conducted a series of studies in Burundi, Liberia and Nepal to explore this question in terms of how international institutions channel aid to support peace and development progress. The studies focused on two multilaterals: the World Bank and the United Nations.

Report

This first report from the Regional Analysts Network, based on three separate, detailed studies of different locations in the Great Lakes region, demonstrates the power of rumours, myths, stereotypes and prejudices to fuel conflict. Based on interviews with ordinary citizens as well as political decision-makers and opinion-leaders, the report presents material which has hitherto been little documented, and draws original conclusions that will be of interest to a wide readership.

Full report

International Alert has been working in Burundi since 1995 when peace negotiations were beginning. We have helped provide space for conflict transformation and built capacity for this among some of the main protagonists.

Location

Location

Location

This project supporting women peacebuilders follows on from a programme in which Alert supported a number of women’s groups in implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The resolution mandates greater protection of women in conflict situations, particularly through the greater participation of women in peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

Enhancing Security and the Rule of Law: How can gender be better
integrated into the priorities of the UN Peacebuilding Commission?

library: 

062007EventReportEnhancingSecurity.pdf

The UN Peacebuilding Commission: A Chance to Build Peace More Effectively
The Case of Burundi

October 2006

library: 

102006ReportBurundi.pdf

International Alert recently attended the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women which undertook a 15-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA).

In partnership with the Eastern Africa Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), Alert organised a panel discussion to present the preliminary results of a joint research project on the nature and impact of women’s political participation currently being carried out in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

Civil society and government representatives from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Burundi recently gathered in Freetown for training on developing gender-sensitive indicators for the consolidation of peacebuilding programmes. Participants also attended a roundtable discussion on the development of National Action Plans (NAPs) for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

International Alert Burundi recently carried out a study on women’s perceptions of security as part of its programme aimed at supporting local women’s organisations for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

This article by Alert's Director of Programmes Phil Vernon is a reply to Oliver Richmond’s ‘Liberal Peace Transitions' for Open Democracy.

International Alert supports a series of small post-conflict initiatives in Burundi. And some of the values that motivate these are also dear to the liberal hearts of the international community.

Since May 2010, Burundi has embarked in a marathon electoral season, with five successive elections (at district, presidential, legislative, and village level) over a period of five months.

In the district elections on May 24th, the ruling party won a landslide victory. Despite some minor irregularities, international and national election observers stated the elections were largely fair, while opposition parties claimed they were fraudulent and withdrew from the election process.

International Alert is seeking to build on previous initiatives to inform and advance EU thinking on the reintegration of ex-combatants into post-conflict societies and economies. This is the second of two briefing papers produced as part of a year-long initiative aimed at reinvigorating the debate on reintegration. Based on research in Burundi, Liberia and Nepal, it discusses why the lessons of past reintegration programmes are not being learned and what implications this has for future EU disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programming.

Full report

Set up during 2006 with peacebuilding as its sole objective, the UN Peacebuilding Commission has the potential to use its intergovernmental voice to focus attention on the factors that could drive a renewal of conflict. In this light, Alert submitted recommendations in late 2006 on how the PBC could most effectively orientate its short and long-term support to the process of improving security and sustaining peace, for men and women, in Burundi. More widely, this publication also looks at the main challenges for the PBC and how it should focus its activities.

Recommendations