Ending War: The Need for Peace Process Support Strategies

This 6-page brief from Conciliation Resources explores a strategy for any government or international organisation's policy toward conflict-affected countries or regions. It is based on the conviction that the foundations for sustainable peace are laid when those in conflict agree on how to resolve the issues that have divided them and how they will live together peacefully in the future. In addition to formal negotiations, peace processes include efforts to help belligerents and non-combatants to reframe the conflict, increase understanding and improve relationships. As explained here, a peace process support strategy should marshal the multilateral political will and resources needed to support parties to negotiate and implement a viable agreement and to build public support. The goal is to work toward inclusive settlements that pave the way toward more responsive and accountable governance.

Collaboration is cited as a key feature of a flexible and responsive peace process support strategy, which "should ideally be developed and promoted multilaterally. This may call for countries with close ties to the various belligerents to synchronize the influence they can exert, just as the respective allies of the main Tajik parties did when they hosted rounds of talks in the Tajikistan peace process. It can also include 'group of friends' mechanisms of states and institutions with an interest in promoting peace....External actors can help to create conditions that encourage parties to come to the table, stay at the table, reach agreements and implement them. They can encourage parties to secure wider public support and increase confidence that long-standing grievances will be meaningfully addressed and lives will be improved....External actors can help to lay the foundations for a viable peace process by supporting communication channels and spaces for informal and constructive dialogue."

The brief explores strategies for increasing effectiveness of peace processes. For instance, negotiations must be conceived as more than merely a means to reach agreement on ending a war; otherwise, the risk is "a recycling of power within the same basic structures....While external actors cannot 'fix' these situations, they can support the parties' capacities to negotiate agreements, address the underlying causes, and repair relationships damaged by years of hostility." Ensuring ownership of the process is also crucial. This often means that those in conflict need to negotiate an agreement directly, rather than the agreement being drafted by external actors who then pressure the parties to sign it. Though difficult and time consuming, this approach "may result in greater commitment by those who have to live with the agreement..."

At the heart of this strategy is participation. As detailed here, there are different dimensions of inclusiveness: (i) engaging all belligerent groups (or at least giving them the choice to participate); and (ii) involving the main groups affected by the conflict, including women, youth, displaced people, and marginalised communities. With regard to the latter dimension, the brief stresses the importance of providing mechanisms for public participation. "Strategies should also aim to cultivate public support for the process and the agreement. This may involve skillful communication strategies, time for consultation with constituencies and initiatives to work directly with these constituencies to build their support..." Notably, however, inclusiveness "does not necessarily mean that everyone needs to sit together at the same table at the same time....Inclusiveness may require a process structure based on multi-party negotiation and possibly multi-level (local, national, regional) consultation and dialogue."

In order to make these processes possible and effective, as this brief argues, external actors need to provide capacity building, mediation support, and appropriate technical and financial resources. For instance, knowledgeable staff are needed in order for governments to make a successful contribution to a multilateral effort. "Building this capacity requires professional development, systems to retain comparative learning from peacemaking efforts and to disseminate best practice, and the political will to act on this knowledge." Also, external actors can provide training and capacity building in analysing the conflict and potential solutions to it, policy formulation, and negotiation. "This is an investment for both the peace process and for later democratic participation in policy processes and 'good politics' after the settlement."

The final section of the brief offers a set of questions to be asked by those engaging in strategies to support peace processes to resolve conflict. To cite only one of these questions: "Does the process help to establish a pattern of dialogue, debate and negotiation as the basis for political decision-making and establish functioning working relationships between the parties?"