General

In early March 2012, seven British Sri Lankans and two British MPs met communities in Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Killinochchi and Trincomalee in Sri Lanka to improve the understanding of British-Sri Lankan communities in the UK of the rapidly changing circumstances in Sri Lanka following the end of the war.

From 16th-18th March 2012 International Alert convened a group of 25 civil society leaders from different parts of Tunisia.

International Alert has published the second edition of the South Caucasus Literary Almanac, a collection of prose and poetry from the five literatures of the South Caucasus – Abkhaz, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Ossetian – published in one volume in Russia

International Alert has recently launched a paper that explores some profound questions about peace and peacebuilding in South Sudan and Sudan, as a contribution to the debate about how to build a more comprehensive and more stable peace within and between the two Sudans.

This paper uses Alert’s peacebuilding framework to explore questions about peace and peacebuilding in South Sudan and Sudan.

Important underlying factors of conflict remain unaddressed within both countries, and the paper makes three broad recommendations to those in South Sudan and Sudan who are concerned to build a more comprehensive and more stable peace, and to those in the international community wishing to support their efforts.

Full report (Low-res version)

Full report (High-res version)

In 2001 – a different time and a different world – the EU Gothenburg summit agreed to make the prevention of violent conflict a priority for the EU. Measured by money, it’s now the world’s biggest player in peacebuilding. But look around Europe now and we can ask, should peacebuilding also start to be a priority inside the EU?

This report focuses on how theories of change can improve the effectiveness of peacebuilding interventions. A review of 19 peacebuilding projects in three conflict-affected countries found that the process of articulating and reviewing theories of change adds rigour and transparency, clarifies project logic, highlights assumptions that need to be tested, and helps identify appropriate participants and partners. However, the approach has limitations, including the difficulty of gathering theory-validating evidence.

Full report

Between 21st-30th November, International Alert organised a study visit to London and Belfast and trainings in conflict analysis and conflict-sensitive journalism for a group of nine journalists working for the mainstream media in Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.