How “Country Context” Leads to Successful Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
Post-Conflict Peace Building (PCPB) is a comprehensive set of strategies, ideas, and techniques employed in post-conflict areas by the United Nations Security Council with the objective of re-stabilizing and redeveloping societies damaged by war or other major conflicts. Each approach to PCPB depends heavily on the demographics, requisites, and political circumstances of each individual community, and by synthesizing the entirety of PCPB efforts over the last century, we can see patterns emerge in the components of these strategies.
PCPB plans developed by the UNSC give thought to the unique needs of each post-conflict area, and they call this consideration “country context” [1]. They take into account the origin of the conflict, whether the conflict’s resolution was amicable, which groups were most affected or disenfranchised by the conflict, which economic spheres in the community suffered the most, which humanitarian and social problems need to be addressed, and what infrastructure needs to be rebuilt or newly developed to decrease the likelihood of conflicts in the future. These unique issues are then triaged, and the personnel deployed to the area are given the appropriate resources to attend to the specific challenges of the region. The UNSC also works together with national actors in the peacebuilding process who are able to mobilize state resources to post-conflict areas in concert with the UNSC’s international relief plans.
The UNSC does not have a blanket strategy for PCPB because they are mindful of the need for sustainability in peacebuilding, which can only be achieved if the PCPB programs are tailored to the people of each community. Those results are then synthesized into the ever-growing figurative database of successful or unsuccessful PCPB efforts by the UN and used to better implement PCPB strategies in the future. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote about the Peacebuilding Commission in his 2009 report Peacebuilding in the Immediate Aftermath of Conflict: “The experience [the Commission] has gained to date in supporting Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic could contribute to strengthening the United Nations peacebuilding architecture and informing the evolving nature and scope of the Commission’s advisory role [2].”
In her address to the UNSC about PCPB in 2010, Managing Director of World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala offered a specific example of the successful introduction of a “rapid results” approach in Burundi after the country was ravaged by civil war; this approach broke up the long-term development plans of 80 government projects into more manageable 100 day periods. The result was a huge boost in productivity, with the country seeing “the distribution of 250, 000 textbooks to primary schools in 60 days when previously this took an entire school year,” and “482 pregnant women visited health centers and were subject to HIV/AIDS screening in one month — far in excess of the previous monthly average of 71 [1].” Focusing on education and healthcare — two arenas in which Burundi was desperately lacking — allowed the country to retain its much-needed political and economic stability once international aid began to diminish and provided a strong foundation for the country to build on.
Like in Burundi, ethnic tensions spurred the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in 1992, which subsequently caused a land-grab free-for-all between Muslims, Serbs, and Bosnian Croats in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. Strong social policies implemented by the UN “addressed effectively the identity-based causes of the conflict guiding the unification of the different social and ethnic strata into a well-functioning entity [3].” These policies took into account the specific cause of conflict in the region and were thus able to quickly push the country towards healing. Similarly, ethnic tensions were subdued by the implementation of a three-way government that equally represents each ethnic group. So far, these unique PCPB measures have proven successful, with little indication of ethnic tensions in the region boiling over any time soon.
These examples serve as just a glimpse of the many peacebuilding efforts the UNSC has brokered, but they show us the importance of paying attention to the particular needs of individual communities and the specifics of their distinct conflicts. When coupled with accountability, transparency, and successful international cooperation, “country context” provides a solid foundation for the implementation of UNSC PCPB measures around the world.
In 2017, Cho Tae-yul, the Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission stated in an address to the UNSC, “We stand ready to respond to the requests to contribute to support peacebuilding and sustaining peace,” and vowed that the UN will be ready to aid in PCPB efforts wherever help is needed [4]. To keep up with current UN peacebuilding missions and PCPB partnerships, visit https://www.unmissions.org/ and follow @UNPeacebuilding.
References
[1] Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, “Post-conflict Peace-building: A Comprehensive Peace-building Strategy to Prevent the Recurrence of Conflict.” World Bank. Accessed October 09, 2018. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2010/04/16/post-conflict-peace-building-a-comprehensive-peace-building-strategy-to-prevent-the-recurrence-of-conflict.
[2] “Report of the Secretary-General on Peacebuilding in the Immediate Aftermath of Conflict.” United Nations. Accessed October 09, 2018. www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/pbf_090611_sg.pdf.
[3] Filip Filipov, “Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Strategies and Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador and Sierra Leone.” United Nations. Accessed October 09, 2018. https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/6127/1/S0600690_en.pdf
[4] “UN Peacebuilding Commission Chair Says Body Is Ready to Help Sustain Peace Wherever There Is Need.” United Nations. Accessed October 09, 2018. https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/06/559832-un-peacebuilding-commission-chair-says-body-ready-help-sustain-peace-wherever
