About This Website
Throughout history, warfare has caused untold human suffering and economic cost. In recent times, many organizations have attempted to reduce political violence. While they have achieved some successes, much of their work has been ineffective. Overall, the level of political violence has increased and is forecast to rise still further in the years ahead. This website is intended to stimulate thinking how about how members of the peacebuilding community can achieve better results, individually and collectively.
I will welcome suggestions as to how the effectiveness of peacebuilding can be improved for posting on this website.
Milt Lauenstein
Increasing Effectiveness
The peacebuilding community can make use of several approaches to increase its effectiveness. One is for peace building organizations to collaborate in developing shared strategies, priorities, and plans. A second it is to do the research needed to determine where and how to allocate resources to get the best results. A third is to rely on local knowledge and understanding in determining what actions to take.
Collaboration
To achieve their objectives, people have found the following approaches to be helpful:
· Cooperate
· Establish a strategy
· Base decisions on evidence
In the peacebuilding community, practitioners and funders largely act independently. They have no generally accepted strategy. They have a little hard evidence on which to base decisions how about where and how to allocate their resources. As a result, they have failed to achieve a reduction in armed conflict in recent years.
Fortunately, there are signs that this is beginning to change. Through DM&E, a global community of practitioners, evaluators and academics shares best and emerging practices on how to design, monitor, and evaluate peacebuilding programs .Twenty organizations have recently joined together as the “+Peace Coalition” to build support for peacebuilding.Another new organization, “Impact:Peace,” is forming partnerships to initiate research to determine how peacebuilders can do most to reduce political violence.Through The Better Evidence Project, and number of organizations are working to establish research project to provide useful evidence to the peacebuilding community.
These collaborations promise improved peacebuilding effectiveness.
Research
While here and there, peacebuilders have demonstrated that they can prevent and even stop wars, their successes have been more or less at random. They have not had the evidence they need to focus their resources where they will be most effective. Without it, they are flying blind. The result is that much of their work has been ineffective, and political violence continues unabated.
Much data on past peacebuilding projects is available to researchers. Using random control trials can produce additional evidence how about where and how resources can be most effectively applied. The newly established Better Evidence Project is working to establish what research will be most useful to the peace building community and then initiating and funding the work.
A new initiative, the Better Evidence Project, has been established to support new research that is needed.