Giving Peace an Address? - Berghof Handbook for Conflict ...

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About the Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series: The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and because it raises important issues at the present time. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars critically engage and debate in light of their experience. Typically, a Dialogue includes one lead article from key experts, and several commentaries from practitioners and others. Rather than presenting a single analysis, these practitioner-scholar encounters stimulate debate, integrating different perspectives, challenging prevailing views and comparing research findings with experiences and insights on the ground. Importantly, Dialogues, as works of broad relevance, are distributed in print version as well as online. We invite readers to respond to the papers (as to all articles). Interesting and original contributions can be added to the web version of the Dialogue. To Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 10 Peace Infrastructures – Assessing Concept and Practice the following authors have contributed: A Stina Lundström and Barbara Unger (eds.) (introduction) A Ulrike Hopp-Nishanka (lead article) A Oliver P. Richmond (response article) A Hannes Siebert (response article) A Borja Paladini Adell (response article) A Ulrike Hopp-Nishanka (reflection on the responses) Acknowledgements: Layout & Graphics Design: Coxorange (http://coxorange-berlin.de/) Proofreading: Aaron Griffiths © 2012 Berghof Foundation Operations GmbH. All rights reserved. To cite this article: Hopp-Nishanka, Ulrike, 2012. Giving Peace an Address? Reflections on the Potential and Challenges of Creating Peace Infrastructure, in: Barbara Unger, Stina Lundström, Katrin Planta and Beatrix Austin (eds). Peace Infrastructures – Assessing Concept and Practice. Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series No. 10. Berlin: Berghof Foundation. . First launch 30.11.2012. First launch 30.11.2012. Order at: Berghof Foundation Altensteinstraße 48a 14195 Berlin, Germany Via Internet: www.berghof-handbook.net www.berghof-foundation.org order@berghof-foundation.org
1 Introduction 1 Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series No. 10 In early 2007, community groups in suburbs of Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana, clashed over the construction of a water pipeline. Violence and destruction ensued, local businesses shut down, the police had to intervene and several community leaders and youths were arrested. The violence, however, did not escalate further and the conflict was settled outside court with the help of the Northern Region Peace Advisory Council, a group of more than 20 civil society representatives, religious leaders and local authority representatives (Draman et al. 2009). Building on the trust and acceptance forged with traditional chiefs, the group engaged in various forms of dispute resolution around land, religion, and social and political issues, as well as community peacebuilding work. Similar stories are reported from all over Ghana, and their successes are related to the country’s national peace architecture that has evolved in recent years (for an overview see Ojielo 2007). What is special about the example from Ghana is the contribution of government agencies. They play an important role in the peace efforts: the members of the advisory council did not come together on their own, but were appointed by the regional minister; they are supported by the government’s peace promotion officers; and different regional and district councils are coordinated by a national government unit. Change agents have been institutionalised throughout the government system of Ghana (see Box 2 below for more details). The Ghanaian example seems at odds with many other peacebuilding experiences where government actors are far more marginal. The reluctance other actors feel about engaging them is partially explained by the complicated and compromised role governments tend to play in intra-state conflict, where often the state has been captured by exclusionary elites, state power is abused, and moderate actors excluded. In any event, it is rare to find governments embracing change in the way seen in Ghana. What can be learned from the Ghanaian example? How can it (and others like it) be described and understood? What are the necessary elements of such national frameworks? Can they be implemented in any country? How can they be supported? These questions are now being explored in the context of the emerging concept of peace infrastructure. The idea of peace infrastructure is to develop mechanisms for cooperation among all relevant stakeholders, including the government, by promoting cooperative problem-solving and institutionalising a response mechanism to violent conflict (van Tongeren 2011a). The understanding that a dialogue process and its underlying cooperative structure are mutually enhancing is not new (e.g. Ropers 1995); the novel focus here is on the structure – the organisation, connection and interaction – of cooperative mechanisms. While other concepts emphasise synergistic collaboration between peacebuilding interventions, the focus here is on building the structural capacities of the conflict parties and stakeholders. Changing the “hearts and minds” of conflict parties is not enough: organisational and structural capacities are required to achieve conflict transformation. In principle, peace infrastructure composed of diverse, interconnected organisations at different levels can give peace an address in a social landscape torn by violence. It may either act as a change agent itself, or provide the necessary space for such change agents. At the outset, I should note that I regard peace infrastructure as a concept that helps us understand the domestic, internal efforts in a conflict or fragile context to create or build on existing mechanisms and organisations that engage in reducing violence and problem solving. The focus is less on the role of 1 The author is grateful to Norbert Ropers, Barbara Unger and Paul van Tongeren for lively discussions, without which the conceptual development of peace infrastructures presented here would not have been possible. The concept has been further developed with the help of the Berghof Handbook editing team’s feedback. 2
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