Andrew H Campbell of Bellevue, NE Explains How Non-Governmental Organizations are at the Forefront of Peace Leadership
Throughout human history, governments and their agencies, which ostensibly speak on behalf of the entirety of the nations that they govern, have largely been responsible for either maintaining peace or destroying it.
It’s undeniable that this method of peace activism has failed the world and its people, giving far too much power to lone individuals or small groups of prominent government officials to enact policy that affects all of us.
The realization of that fatal flaw in human governance has spawned a new wave of peaceful diplomacy according to author and Adjunct Leadership Professor Andrew H Campbell of Bellevue, NE. As a prominent international speaker on the topics of peace and leadership, he has addressed the World Society of Victimology at the Hague and was the keynote speaker at the International Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
Campbell says that while inter-country diplomacy through official government channels remains vital to building successful and peaceful partnerships between nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly the groups that lay the groundwork for successful diplomatic ties or conflict resolution.
The Role of NGOs in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building
These NGOs, which are also called civil society organizations, are increasingly being sought out by the United Nations and other governmental bodies to ensure their expertise is taken into consideration on issues of conflict resolution or peace building. Frequently, these groups now work hand-in-hand to achieve the best outcomes.
NGOs can provide a wide range of invaluable services to regions dealing with the effects of violence, war, or terrorism. Surely the most important is their ability to get much-needed supplies into the hands of those who need them, particularly those who have been displaced from their homes or regions due to conflict. They can also perform necessary healthcare services for those affected by the violence.
Another important role they can fulfill is the establishment of schools for displaced children, millions of which are affected by some conflicts. Andrew H Campbell of Bellevue, NE notes that without proper schooling and a foundation to build a living for themselves, those children will be susceptible to recruitment by insurgents, proliferating the existence of armed conflict.
NGOs don’t merely help pick up the pieces, they’re also instrumental in peace building initiatives, primarily through their efforts to strengthen civil society in conflict-ridden areas by helping to develop a culture and system where human rights are valued and a sustainable peace can flourish.
Those efforts focus on a few key areas of societal development, including improving the availability of food and clean water, giving more women and children access to an education, and launching various advocacy initiatives that focus on personal development and raising awareness about the horrors of conflict.
Andrew H Campbell of Bellevue, NE adds that some NGOs can also function as important track two diplomatic players, forming collaborations with local grassroots movements and acting as valuable intermediaries between opposing sides of a conflict or between official state actors and their non-state counterparts.
