Peace Portal

EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia: a snapshot

2012-05-14T13:19:23Z

As part of the International Steering Committee meeting of GPPAC in Tbilisi, Georgia; all participants had the opportunity to visit the EU monitoring mission (EUMM) in the country and understand how this mission contributes to the pacification of the region.

What is this Mission? It is an unarmed civilian monitoring mission, consisting of more than 200 civilian monitors sent by EU members’ states to help stabilize the situation after the 2008 conflict. The Mission patrols day and night the areas adjacent to the South Ossetia and Abkhazian Administrative Boundary Lines (the word ‘border’ was never used). The patrols observe and report any incidents. But it seems to be that their merely presence, makes an important contribution to the security of the region.

We got a brief about the situation in South Ossetia and could hear some very basic but important examples of the impact the mission has. There are several cases in which the boundary cuts the road to go to the next village, to go to school or to go to the land people need to farm. The mission intervenes in facilitating that when issues arise children can still go to school, cattle can reach the pastures, etc… making the stabilization component of the mission pretty tangible.

However, there are quite some challenges as well. A main objective of the mission is to build confidence and the team dedicated to this task is the biggest within the field office (there are in total 3 teams: confidence building, compliance with the memoranda and Humanitarian issues). But as the team cannot cross the administrative boundary and enter South Ossetia, the confidence that can be built is limited. As well as it affects the effectiveness of the mission because 1) it lacks clarity about the incidents taking place on the other side and 2) cannot work to decrease the risks of future destabilizing incidents.

One of the things that surprised us the most was the fact that a civilian mission has a very strong military component. Mr. Meyer who is the head of the mission and who gave us the briefing has a military background and the analysis we got was made from a military point of view. Why such a choice is made and why is not a civilian the person in charge of the civilian mission was not explained.

Unfortunately there was little time for the second part of our field trip, which consisted in meeting local civil society organizations. We briefly heard about the work done by Kartlosi (Bridge of Friendship), the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, the Union of Wives of Invalids and Lost Warriors, the Gori Disabled People’s Club and The Charity Humanitarian Centre Abkhazetia supporting IDP’s social and economic development. Surprisingly the collaboration between the EUMM and these local CSO’s was more relevant for the EU mission than for the local organizations. The mission needs local people to be able to do its work, especially for confidence building as local CSO’s have more capacity to interact with the citizens of both sides of the administrative line.

It was an interesting field trip, in which we were happy to see a good example of the relevance of CSO’s in a civilian mission working in confidence building and human security. It would have been nice if we could have spent more time with these local organizations and get a better insight of the important work they do.

DM&E Tip: Gender Sensitive Project Design

2012-05-10T15:16:49Z

Cross-posted from the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding

We know that conflict and violence affects all people, but not in the same way. Men and women can be perpetrators and victims; but, often they play different roles and have different needs before, during and after a conflict.

The differences in gender roles and responsibilities means that in order to be effective we have to target certain activities to particular individuals/groups, as well as “mainstream” a gender lens into all our programs. At the most basic level this means designing gender sensitive programming, and while this includes gender disaggregated indicator data, it is also much more.

Gender Analysis

Conflict analysis is a well-established best practice in peacebuilding (perhaps increasingly so in development work as well) project design. It’s hard to imagine any project being funded without some form of analysis being demonstrated on paper—of course another issue is whether or not it is primary or secondary data, but another issue for another time.

You might consider including the following points on gender in your context and/or conflict analysis:

How has gender roles changed as a result of conflict? Are men and women socio-politically or economically disempowered from their traditional gender role? For example, conflict may have disempowered men by reducing the availability of jobs, thus affecting how they perceive their worth vis-à-vis society? What are the consequences of this for women? And are these changes temporary or long-term?
How active are women and men in the peace process or in the perpetration of violence? The answers may indicate opportunities for engagement or leverage.
How are local organizations working with men and women? Are there gaps that should be filled? If there is a significant gender imbalance (in either staff or programming), the organization may not be the most appropriate partner; on the other hand, it also provides an opportunity to strengthen the gender practices of that organization.

Other Design Considerations

The Australian Agency for International Development created an excellent guidance note on gender in peacebuilding programming. They suggest the following 10 tips for gender equality in peacebuilding programming:[1]

Engender the data: collect sex-disaggregated data, use gender sensitive indicators
Apply a gender analysis to the conflict-prone situation, including the impacts of conflict and the roles and needs of men and women, boys and girls in peace-building
Ensure that men and women play equal roles in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of peace-building initiatives
Identify and support women’s organizations working for peace
Ensure both women and men have equal access to training and capacity building in all sectors
Appoint equal numbers of men and women in program and technical assistance teams, especially at senior levels; encourage implementing partners to do the same
Provide gender training for all staff and implementing partners involved in peace-building initiatives
Recognize the prevalence and impact of gender-based violence, and be sure to minimize risks and support survivors through all aspects of peace-building work
Take advantage of conflict-related changes in gender roles which empower women
Be patient: maintain realistic expectations for change and avoid a trade-off between speed of action and gender equality

Of course there are also gender considerations for implementation, monitoring and data collection, and evaluation. There’s a whole range of resources that cover gender in all aspects of the project cycle. Consider consulting the following resources.

Hot Resources

Gender Guidelines: Peace-Building by the Australian Agency for International Development

Gender Mainstreaming Strategies in Decent Work Promotion: Programming Tools: GEMS Toolkit by the International Labour Organization

Gender Analysis Tools by the Canadian International Development Agency

Guide to Gender Sensitive Indicators by the Canadian International Development Agency

Presentation 4 in this American Evaluation Association Conference 2010 presentation by CARE on indicators for women’s empowerment disaggregated by type of human agency.

Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring & Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities, Chapter 4, by Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers

Jonathan White is the Content Manager of the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding at Search for Common Ground. Views expressed herein do not represent SFCG, the Learning Portal or its partners or affiliates.

[1] AusAID, “Gender Guidelines: Peace-Building,” p.5, 2006.

Gender in Peacebuilding Design, Monitoring and Evaluation

2012-05-09T14:00:03Z

Cross-posted from the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding

Gender sensitive programming is, generally, a mandatory requirement of most international development activities, including peacebuilding. For example, USAID’s office of Conflict Management and Mitigation requires all projects demonstrate a unique gender element. More than a donor-mandated exercise in project equity, the increasing emphasis on gender is forcing peacebuilders to critically reflect on how our projects interact with local actors and context on a micro-level, and is challenging our assumptions on what it means to ‘do good peace work’.

But what does it mean to build gender into the design, monitoring and evaluation of peacebuilding projects?

Hot Resource! Gender Mainstreaming Strategies in Decent Work Promotion: Programming Tools: GEMS Toolkit by the International Labour Organization

Design

Gender can easily be incorporated into the initial assessments and analyses of project design, such as the context and conflict assessments. A common donor suggestion is to examine the distinct ways in which the conflict and environment affects men and women differently.

Hot Tip! The International Labour Organization defines gender analysis as a systematic approach to examining factors related to gender. It involves a deliberate effort to identify and understand the different roles, relationships, situations, resources, benefits, constraints, needs and interests of men and women in a given socio-cultural context.[1]

Hot Resource! Gender Analysis Tools by the Canadian International Development Agency

Practically speaking, this could mean do women participate to the same extent as men in local decision making processes? Are women appropriately represented in the ongoing peace process? In what ways, if any, has the conflict increased or decreased the security of men and women?

Hot Tip! The focus of the project or program will guide you towards the right gender analysis questions.

Or, at a more basic level, how has the relationship between the sexes changed as a result of the conflict? “Has the scope of action of women and of men—in the home, community, region, at the national level—diminished or increased?”[2]

There are a range of tools available for such an exercise. You might adapt a traditional analytical model to specifically examine gender and there are also tools developed specific to gender analysis.

Answering these questions will help you better understand how your project might affect men and women in different and distinct ways, and allows you to plan for greater gender equity in the project cycle.

Gender Indicators in Peacebuilding

Hot Resource! Guide to Gender Sensitive Indicators by the Canadian International Development Agency

Gender sensitive indicators track gender-related changes in society over time. “Their usefulness lies in their ability to point to changes in the status and roles of women and men over time, and therefore to measure whether gender equity is being achieved.”[3] It is important, as in any other project, that your indicators be multi-dimensional and focused on the clearly developed objectives and goal.

Hot Tip! Indicators may not tell you everything, particularly if you have not developed a robust system of indicators that utilize both qualitative and quantitative measures and at the strategic levels of society in the project seeks to affect.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was kind enough to develop a whole guide to gender sensitive indicators, and many of these can be adapted to your peacebuilding projects if not immediately relevant.

Hot Resource! Check out Presentation 4 in this American Evaluation Association Conference 2010 presentation by CARE on indicators for women’s empowerment disaggregated by type of human agency.

But, of course, we cannot forget good principles of indicator design. First and foremost, indicators must pass tests of reliability, feasibility and utility in decision making. And second, the indicators must be measurable!

Hot Resource! Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring & Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities, Chapter 4, by Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers

Gender in Evaluation

The role of gender in evaluation is a more difficult category to address. Not every project will explicitly seek to address gender or women’s dynamics—simply disaggregating certain data sets by gender is gender sensitivity, but does not necessarily mean that the project sought to address the unique ways in which women experience conflict (or whatever the ‘problem’ at hand is) differently.

If your project is specifically seeking to address the unique ways in which women experience a situation differently from men, then obviously the evaluation will examine the extent to which you were successful against the stated goal and objectives.

But it is equally important to examine how the project did or did not affect gender or women differently even if the project did not specifically seek to do this. This will help tell you if there are gaps in your project, and whether there is a need to incorporate such an explicit focus into the project or similar future programming.

This, however, raises an issue evaluators are still struggling with: what is the role of the evaluator when gender issues arise in the data, but when gender is not an explicit focus of the project?

Here it can be useful to have an evaluation manager to oversee the evaluation process and help the program staff and evaluator collaboratively think through the consequences of the data and how those consequences will be dealt with.

But of course, everyone experiences and perceives gender differently. So, how do you incorporate gender considerations in peacebuilding?

Hot Resource! Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring & Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities, Chapter 9 by Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers

Hot Resources

Gender Mainstreaming Strategies in Decent Work Promotion: Programming Tools: GEMS Toolkit by the International Labour Organization

Gender Analysis Tools by the Canadian International Development Agency

Guide to Gender Sensitive Indicators by the Canadian International Development Agency

Presentation 4 in this American Evaluation Association Conference 2010 presentation by CARE on indicators for women’s empowerment disaggregated by type of human agency.

Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring & Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities, Chapter 4, by Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers

Jonathan White is the Content Manager for the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding at Search for Common Ground. Views expressed herein do not represent SFCG, the Learning Portal or its partners or affiliates.

[1] International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization, 2009.

[2] SDC, Gender and Peacebuilding Tip Sheet, p.6.

[3] CIDA, Guide to Gender Sensitive Indicators, p. 5

A good step for the wrong motivation

2012-05-04T14:03:43Z

In ‘US to move marines out of Japan’ of 27 April 2012 the intentions of the US to move 9,000 marines from Okinawa is presented. Although this is a move that should be applauded, the rest of the article shows a continued misplaced believe that the presence of US troops will bring greater security for the region.

Unless the US manages to significantly improve the behaviour of its troops abroad and address the contaminations concerns, it can only be await that similar resistance will develop in Guam or the other locations the troops are moved to.

More so, taking the DPRK rocket launch and its intentions to undertake another nuclear test as an indication of ‘increasingly uncertain security environment’ is a failure to understand these actions as their only means to stand up for themselves in a region where they are military out powered. Isolating the regime and surrounding the country with US bases will not lessen this behaviour.

The US’s insistence to maintain or potentially even increase a robust military presence will only cause the continuation of the military stand-off and arms race, in particular with China.

Instead the US should take the move from Okinawa as an opportunity to reduce its military presence in the region and recognize that only dialogue and engagement – principally through the Six Part Talks process – with bring lasting stability

By Marte Hellema, Regional Coordinator Asia Pacific at the Global Secretariat of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)

DM&E Tip: When to Use Outcome Mapping

2012-05-03T15:01:46Z

Cross-posted from the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding

If you read this week’s blog, you’ll already have an introductory grasp of Outcome Mapping methodology.

There are so many evaluative methodologies floating around that deciding which methodology, and which methods, to use can be quite a difficult task. Patricia Rogers, Professor of Public Sector Evaluation at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, is currently developing a website, BetterEvaluation (betterevaluation.org), to help us answer this very question. Until the site is live (later this year?), however, we are left to our own devices.

So, why would one chose to use Outcome Mapping over the traditional summative, mixed-methods evaluation that examines impact and seeks attribution? There are three major categories for you to consider when decided to use Outcome Mapping, and it is important for you to consider if these align with the project you seek to evaluate—if so, Outcome Mapping might be a good fit!

Type of Change

Outcome Mapping is concerned with the outcomes of a project, not impacts (i.e., long-term effects of outcomes, direct and in-direct, intended and un-intended), and specifically outcomes which relate to change in behavior, relationships, activities, actions of a particular group of people, groups, organizations and change.

Hot Tip! Outcome Mapping is not intended for a technical evaluation to assess the relevance of the programming area or an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of one approach compared to another.[1]

The approach is meant to measure the process by which change occurs, instead of the end result or impact of the change. This is in contrast to seeking causal relations between the intervention and observable change in the environment, and a key consideration here is whether or not the donor—and for that matter your implementing organization—will accept such an approach. Signs are encouraging: CIDA and DFID both use Outcome Mapping, and indeed, the International Development Research Centre in Canada has found that OM can provide quite complimentary data sets and insights to the traditional evaluative forms that seek attribution and statement on impact.

Whose Change?

This second category relates to whose change you seek to measure. Outcome Mapping is particularly useful when you are trying to measure the changes on direct beneficiaries—what OM refers to as ‘Boundary Partners.’ It is therefore only concerned with the change processes which occurred in those whom the program directlyinteracts with.

Hot Tip! Outcome Mapping is not useful if you want to measure or understand change through or in in-direct partners.

Furthermore, Outcome Mapping suggests that influence on change is a reciprocal relationship: Boundary Partners are affected by the intervention and in turn affect the intervention. In some ways, this is quite similar to Developmental Evaluation.

Hot Tip! If you are not in a position to change the behavior of the intervention then this approach may not be right for you.

Process-Oriented

As a process-oriented methodology, Outcome Mapping uses graduated Progress Markers in order to determine how close the intervention came to achieving the desired outcome. These Progress Markers then form the basis for monitoring and evaluation; they are developed in collaboration with your Boundary Partners and collaboratively monitored. For more on Progress Markers see this week’s blog post introducing Outcome Mapping methodology.

This can become overwhelming, however, if your project has many Boundary Partners and many Progress Markers. Data overload is not useful, and since Progress Markers are decided on consensus, agreement can be difficult amongst a wide range of actors. Now this does not necessarily discount the use of this methodology; you can, for example, opt to report on Progress Markers through a sample of the Boundary Partners.

Hot Tip! Remember, OM is meant to be a flexible, complimentary approach to traditional M&E methods!

Hot Resources

Outcome Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs by Sarah Earl, Fred Carden and Terry Smutylo

Outcome Mapping: Those Who Dream to Make a Difference by Sarah Earl, Raj Kumar Verma, Adama Ndiaye, Thierry Barreto Fernandes and Kalpana Pant

Introduction to Outcome Mapping Webinar by Outcome Mapping (outcomemapping.ca)

Jonathan White is the Manager of the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding atSearch for Common Ground. Views expressed herein do not represent SFCG, the Learning Portal or its partners or affiliates.

[1] Sarah Earl, Fred Carden, Terry Smutylo, Outcome Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs, pp.16.

Lifting EU sanctions on Burma comes as reward too early

2012-05-02T13:38:38Z

In the article 'EU schort sancties Birma jaar op’ (EU suspends sanctions on Burma for one year), on www.nrc.nl on 20.04.2012, a cautiously positive message is given on the situation in Burma. Arguments about the "remarkable transition" are formed by placing them outof context. Moderate enthusiasm about the upcoming recital of the 27 European minsters of Foreign Affairs is more appropriate. Different nuances with respect to the positive "remarkable transition” are important to make:

The recent elections are put forward as an indication for a positive democratic transition. The electoral process, however, ispart of a system that was created by the 'former' authoritarian military regime. Arguments that do occur as positive are actually showing how much work there is left to do to democratize the system. It is true that there is a "new government", but at least a quarter—as is written in the constitution—has a military background. Secondly, although dialogue with the main opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is considerable progress, it is remarkable that she needed explicit permission to participate in the elections, despite the expected mass victory.

The lifting of EU sanctions on the country comes as a reward too early. The changes in Burma are indeed "remarkable", but too little to say that they are 'irreversible'. Until that time, help and support for the development of Burma should be encouraged, but international sanctions can be better maintained.

Introduction to Outcome Mapping

2012-04-30T14:40:00Z

Cross-posted from the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding

Something I frequently hear in evaluation recommendations is to focus more on the outcome level rather than outputs—the ‘so what?’ question. There are a range of ways to do this, one of which is called ‘Outcome Mapping.’

Hot Tip! “Outcomes are defined as changes in the behavior, relationships, activities, or actions of the people, groups, and organizations with whom a program works directly.”[1]

Hot Resource: Check out Outcome Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs by Sarah Earl, Fred Carden and Terry Smutylo

Developed by the International Development & Research Centre in Canada, Outcome Mapping is an evaluative methodology that characterizes and assesses thecontributions development programs make to the achievement of outcomes. It is especially useful in projects where success depends on behavioral or social change,[2]and can also be used for project design. This blog, however, will examine OM as an evaluative methodology.

Hot Resource: Check out this introductory webinar to Outcome Mapping by trained OM facilitator Simon Hearn.

But first, let’s do a quick review of Outcome Mapping before looking at its evaluative application.

Acknowledging Complexity

Outcome Mapping methodology is unique in that it shifts “away from assessing the impact of a program (which are defined as changes in ‘state’—for example, policy relevance or reduced conflict) and toward changes in the behaviours, relationships, actions or activities of the people, groups and organizations with whom a development program works directly.”[3] The methodology does not ignore or suggest that changes in state are not desirable; on the contrary, OM states that in order for changes to be brought about in state, there must be changes in behavior which underline and support the state.

Hot Tip! “Boundary partners are those individuals, groups, and organizations with whom the program works directly and with whom the program anticipates opportunities for influence.”

Furthermore, Outcome Mapping states it is the boundary partners who are primarily responsible for bringing about change as a result of the intervention; the intervention merely facilitates the process “by providing access to new resources, ideas, or opportunities for a certain period of time.”[4] Personally, I find this quite attractive: not only understanding how impact is brought about, but understanding how close we are in the causal chain to arrive at the desired outcome and/or impact.

Linking Outputs to Outcomes: Progress Markers

Outcome Mapping uses ‘progress markers’ to understand progress towards the desired outcomes. Of course this assumes that you had properly identified outcomes in the design phase. We can apply this concept to evaluation, and construct progress markers ex-post based on our project objectives. To do this, we first must ensure that the objectives identify desired behavioural changes.

Hot Tip! Remember, Outcome Mapping is specifically concerned with changes in behavior, relationships, activities, or actions, so you may need to re-work your objectives a bit if this is not already the case.

For each objective, or ‘Outcome Challenge’ if you will, you should construct graduated progress markers that reflect the following levels:

What you expect to see or occur (average scenario) – no more than four
What you would like to see or occur (above-average scenario) – no more than eight
What you would love to see or occur (ideal scenario) – no more than three

You should additionally assign ratings for each of the progress markers; the rating should reflect the likelihood of the outcome occurring. For example, what we would like to see occur has a 70% projected chance of occurrence.

Hot Tip! All of this should be bound within the project timeframe: what can we realistically achieve, what would we like to achieve and what would we love to achieve within this timeframe?

Collaborative Measurement of Progress Markers

The graduated progress markers you just set will now become part of the evaluative framework used to assess the project.

Hot Resource! Check out these case studies of how Outcome Mapping has been applied by IDRC partners.

Using a trained facilitator, ideally one who is familiar with Outcome Mapping, project staff together with Boundary Partners should begin to assess progress towards the Progress Markers. Using monitoring data, both that which is explicit and recorded and that which is intuitively felt, known or observed, the group collaboratively identifies which Progress Markers were achieved and which were not.

Based on these conclusions, the group can then reflect and identify challenges and trouble-areas for improvement in future programming. Outcome Mapping methodology is inherently geared towards learning.

Hot Resource! Check out Outcome Mapping, an online community of practice to support the use of OM methodology.

Situating OM in Peacebuilding Evaluation

But there are several larger issues here that deserve discussion.

What should we be measuring when we do evaluation, the outcome or impact level? Being more in the so-called ‘circler camp’ (see Reina Neufeldt, “’Frameworkers’ and ‘Circlers’—Exploring Assumptions in Impact Asses...”), I find myself relating to the notion that social change is a long-term and complex process where attribution is not only difficult to draw, but that the process of doing so is inherently flawed as no single initiative can claim attribution for large scale changes frequently sought by peacebuilding initiatives. I therefore find OM quite appealing as it seeks to balance our need to measure and understand the changes which occurred within the project timeframe, thus keeping us more realistic in our goal setting—not just for ourselves, but for the people we serve; overpromising results can do harm.

And while I am not alone in the suspicion of attribution in peacebuilding, there are also trends in the opposite direction: the increasing use of impact evaluation as the ‘gold standard’ to be met, as well as a range of experimental and quasi-experimental methods that may not be as relevant to peacebuilding work both because of the difficulty in adapting the models (linear methodology for non-linear change processes) and the very real possibility of doing harm.

Regardless, however, the fact that both these trends are present is interesting and on the whole, I think, a good thing because it pushes us out of our measurement comfort zones (i.e., outputs), and hopefully at the same time, increases our effectiveness in peacebuilding activities—which ought to be the whole point of evaluation to begin with.

Hot Resources

Outcome Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs by Sarah Earl, Fred Carden and Terry Smutylo

Outcome Mapping: Those Who Dream to Make a Difference by Sarah Earl, Raj Kumar Verma, Adama Ndiaye, Thierry Barreto Fernandes and Kalpana Pant

Introduction to Outcome Mapping Webinar by Outcome Mapping (outcomemapping.ca)

[1] Sarah Earl, Fred Carden and Terry Smutylo, Outcome Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs, Pg. 1.

[2] Sarah Earl, Outcome Mapping: Those Who Dream to Make a Difference, pp. 2.

[3] Earl, Carden, Smutylo, “Outcome Mapping,” pp. 3.

[4] Earl, Carden, Smutylo, “Outcome Mapping,” pp. 2.

Jonathan White is the Manager of the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding at Search for Common Ground. Views expressed herein do not represent SFCG, the Learning Portal or its partners or affiliates.

Tunisie libre et l'action

2012-04-27T00:21:41Z

Tunisie libre milite pour bâtir une patrie libre, démocratique et développée de manière égale entre toutes les régions en organisant des manifestations variées d'ordre humain, culture politique, de développement...

Adresse électronique	tounesalhurra@gmail.com
Téléphone	00216 22 72 01 77
Site web	http://tounesalhurra.blogspot.com

2011T03667APSF1 - JORT N°78 page 3800 du 30 juin 2011

Nos vies brisées

2012-04-27T00:19:57Z

Plus de trente ans, on a pensé, en déclarant que les femmes devraient participer aux travaux ménagers, et quand il a soulevé la question du renforcement de la paix, il y avait des voix qui a dit qu'il était de politiser la question des femmes.

Puis opinion dominante des femmes est un doux, tendre et délicat.Bien sûr, s'ils ne sont pas autorisés à parler, j'ai eu à parler doucement, et ne pas pense que ce serait de discuter de questions comme la paix ou la politique.

On m'a demandé aujourd'hui devant vous que je parle comme nous le femmes concernant la paix.

La paix est un concept que tous les peuples civilisés du monde voulez et envie, et qui se réfère à un état de tranquillité dans l'esprit des gens, un état de paix et de la bonne correspondance avec l'autre.

Les belles paroles.Dommage qu'aujourd'hui, dans ce monde troublé de grandes inégalités, sont juste des mots.Les mots sont évanouissement rapide après eux, malheureusement, ce n'est rien.

C'est pourquoi la poursuite de la paix apporte nécessairement me le conflit et la violence, qui sont faites de béton, tangibles et supportables par les différentes personnes qui habitent maintenant la planète.

Bientôt, le 10 Décembre de la communauté internationale va commémorer la Journée internationale des droits de l'homme.

En tant que femme je me référerai à ce que le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU a récemment reconnu, est que «les civils, particulièrement les femmes et les enfants constituent la grande majorité des personnes affectées par les conflits armés, y compris les réfugiés et personnes déplacées, et de plus en plus ciblés par les combattants et les éléments armés ".

Toutefois, toujours dominé par l'idée que seules les femmes jouent un mineur ou périphériques dans des situations de conflit.

Ce rapport tente de livrer quelques-unes des raisons sous-jacentes de la violence contre les femmes dans les situations de conflit armé est une manifestation extrême de discrimination et d'abus contre les femmes en temps de paix, dans les attitudes qui contribuent à l'acceptation généralisée de la violence domestique, viol et autres formes d'abus sexuels contre les femmes, et sont un exemple des relations de pouvoir inégales entre hommes et femmes dans la plupart des sociétés.

Lorsque les tensions politiques et militarisation croissante dégénérer en conflit ouvert, ces comportements et les abus prennent de nouvelles dimensions communes et des modèles distinctifs, et toutes les formes d'augmentation de la violence, y compris le viol et autres formes de violence sexuelle contre les femmes.Bien que le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU a récemment reconnu que "des civils, particulièrement les femmes et les enfants constituent la grande majorité des personnes affectées par les conflits armés, toujours dominé par l'idée que les femmes ne jouent qu'un rôle secondaire ou accessoire dans le conflit.

Tenter, par ces mots, en montrant les nombreux effets, en plus de viols, de violences ou d'avoir la guerre sur les femmes et les filles, et qui touchent ou différents de ceux des hommes, et les effets dévastateurs l'intégrité physique et leurs droits fondamentaux, parce que la violence sexiste contre les femmes est la violence "dirigée contre une femme pour le simple fait d'être une femme."

Avant de continuer, je dois préciser que si l'article 1 de la Déclaration sur l'élimination de la violence contre les femmes, l'ONU affirme

Pour «violence contre les femmes» est désigne tout acte de violence fondée sur le sexe féminin, ou est susceptible de causer un préjudice, un préjudice physique, sexuel ou psychologique aux femmes, y compris les menaces de tels actes , la contrainte ou la privation arbitraire de liberté, que dans la vie publique ou dans la vie privée.

Dans les attaques directes contre des civils, les femmes constituent habituellement la plupart des non-combattants et ont également tendance à souffrir le plus gros de ce qu'on appelle des «dommages collatéraux»: la mort ou la mutilation de civils à la suite d'attaques militaires, comme ex: les mines terrestres et munitions non explosées ne distinguent pas entre les traces civile et militaire et parce ménage, des restrictions sociales sur leur mobilité et d'autres facteurs peuvent causer aux femmes d'avoir, généralement moins en mesure d'échapper à lorsque des civils sont attaqués.

Certaines femmes peuvent être victimes de torture et de meurtres de femmes parce qu'ils sont leaders dans leur communauté, parce qu'ils ont défié les conventions sociales concernant les rôles appropriés pour les femmes ou pour les activités de leurs parents masculins.Les femmes sont la cible de violence pour être des militants de la paix, les médiateurs et négociateurs dans des situations de conflit et de défenseurs des droits humains et organisations travaillant dans l'aide humanitaire.Beaucoup de ces abus dans des formes spécifiques liées au sexe.

Les femmes peuvent être arrêtés ou détenus dans des établissements pénitentiaires inadéquates, courent souvent le risque d'être soumis à la torture sexiste, y compris le viol et autres formes de sévices sexuels aux mains des gardiens de prison ou d'autres détenus.

En outre, la traite des femmes et des filles aux fins d'exploitation sexuelle et travail forcé est une caractéristique commune des situations post-conflit à travers l'histoire.

Dans de nombreuses régions du monde, nous sommes de plus en plus les femmes et les filles que nous devenions des combattants, que ce soit volontairement ou sous la contrainte, dans les armées régulières et groupes armés.

Certains sont recrutés dans des groupes armés pour être exploités sexuellement ou sont victimes de violences sexuelles dans le cadre de rituels de «initiation».

Beaucoup de femmes sont censés être les gardiens et gardiennes de la famille, et le conflit peut entraîner la perte ou la destruction de leurs maisons touchées particulièrement durement, à la fois économiquement et émotionnellement.

Dans les situations de conflit, de nombreuses femmes doivent prendre les papiers supplémentaires en tant que chefs de ménages et seule soutiens de famille.

Les dommages aux infrastructures économiques et de l'environnement pose des problèmes particuliers des femmes dans des sociétés où la responsabilité incombe à leur alimentation principale de nourriture et d'eau à leurs familles.Les nombreuses femmes du monde entier qui comptent sur l'agriculture de subsistance sont à risque de devenir victimes de tirs croisés, les mines terrestres ou les expulsions.

Prendre soin du bétail, cultiver les champs, mettre des produits sur le marché ou pour recueillir l'eau ou du bois peuvent être des tâches impossibles.Les veuves de guerre ont pour élever leurs enfants tout en essayant, avec difficulté, de gagner leur vie dans des circonstances difficiles.

L'attention internationale croissante à la violence sexuelle commis dans le contexte du conflit, tandis que tend nécessaire et important, cependant, masquer d'autres aspects importants de l'expérience des femmes dans les situations de conflits et la militarisation, et les effets, conflits disproportionnée et spécifique dans leurs droits économiques, sociaux et culturels, y compris leur droit à la santé.

L'effondrement total des soins primaires dans le contexte d'un conflit affecte différemment les femmes, et souvent de manière disproportionnée en raison de leurs besoins de santé uniques et responsabilités en tant que soignants.

Beaucoup d'entre vous peut-être pourquoi les femmes abusées sexuellement, fait exacerbé en période de conflit, ne sont pas signalés, contribuant ainsi à l'impunité dont jouissent de nombreux auteurs de violences sexuelles?

Conscient de cela, de nombreuses femmes choisissent de ne pas déclarer un viol.Beaucoup de femmes se cacher ou nier la violence par crainte de la stigmatisation sociale, ou parce que leurs mécanismes pour résoudre le problème de les prédisposer à ne pas divulguer les abus qu'ils ont subi ou de réclamer des remèdes pour eux.

La stigmatisation sociale est aggravée en grande partie par l'attitude des Etats qui ne parviennent pas à prévenir ou à poursuivre les violences sexuelles, ce qui rend les femmes se sentent doublement victimes dans leurs tentatives d'obtenir justice, de la criminologie ce que nous appelons la victimisation secondaire .

Mais ce qui est significatif dans la plupart des conflits, les femmes restent largement absentes des initiatives de rétablissement, de maintien et de consolidation de la paix, y compris ceux pris en charge par la communauté internationale.

Et dans la foulée des hostilités, le désarmement, la démobilisation, réadaptation et réinsertion, les femmes ne sont pas inclus afin de répondre à leurs besoins ou de l'adresse de leurs expériences.

La violence, qui apparaît comme une suite de conflits armés peuvent prendre plusieurs formes, physiques et psychologiques, qui causent des difficultés économiques et de l'extrême dénuement social qui nient aux femmes leurs droits économiques, sociaux et culturels ainsi que civils et politiques .

Même si les femmes subissent les mêmes violations des droits humains que les hommes, les conséquences sont différentes pour eux.Les femmes confrontées à des obstacles à l'accès à la justice et à réparation, en plus de soutenir la stigmatisation sociale dans les sociétés post-conflit en raison des abus qu'ils ont subis.

Pourquoi est-ce?

La rhétorique, les institutions et les processus de la guerre et la militarisation des éléments sont définis comme étant intrinsèquement centrée sur les hommes et basée sur des valeurs de ce prix agressivité masculine et les caractéristiques associées à dévaloriser les femmes.

Les corps des femmes, leur sexualité et leur capacité de reproduction sont souvent utilisés comme un champ de bataille symbolique et littérale.

Cependant, les schémas de violence contre les femmes dans les conflits ne surgissent pas «naturellement», mais sont commandés, approuvées ou tolérées en tant que résultat d'un calcul politique.La violence et de discrimination fondées sur le sexe ne sont pas, par conséquent, les conflits inhérents, mais sont enracinés dans tous les aspects de la guerre.La violence contre les femmes est une partie intégrante des conflits endémiques et à travers l'histoire.Mais cela ne signifie pas qu'il est inévitable ou insolubles.

Mais n'oubliez pas que ces crimes sont l'œuvre d'individus qui savent qu'ils ne seront pas punis pour les femmes et les filles agressé.Ces forces manipulent-militaire, politique, économique ou social-consciemment ou exacerber les attitudes stéréotypées à l'égard des femmes ou violent et généralisé dans la société, considérant que cette stratégie de guerre sera bénéfique.

Tout au long de l'histoire humaine des femmes ont rarement eu une place dans l'histoire de ce conflit. Les médias presque jamais discuté en profondeur tous les aspects complexes de l'expérience que nous vivons.Et, surtout, la voix des femmes ont presque toujours été exclus du processus de résolution des conflits et la reconstruction après lui.

Bien que les femmes peuvent être aussi des agresseursdans leurs relations avec les hommes, pas besoin de voir les images de femmes soldats infligeant des tortures des prisonniers masculins prison d'Abou Ghraib en Irak pour savoir que malheureusement, il n’a desfemmes,mais leshommes sont considérés comme les principaux acteurs et les principaux acteurs du conflit, tandis que les femmes sont «collatéraux».

Une raison pour laquelle ces abus restent cachés est la séparation traditionnelle entre les sphères «publiques» et «privé» de vie, dans laquelle ce qu'on appelle la violence contre les femmes privées n'est pas considérée comme un endroit approprié pour l'action des tribunaux nationaux et internationaux.

Une autre raison pourquoi ils ne sont pas donnés l'importance voulue est que les femmes, traditionnellement ne sont pas représentés dans les affaires politiques, militaires et internationales qui décident de la guerre et la paix.Les femmes ont toujours eu peu d'implication dans les efforts pour développer les lois de la guerre.

Les attaques dévastatrices de Septembre 11, 2001 a souligné une nouvelle sorte de menace de groupes armés.Bien que les actes de terrorisme contre des civils n'est pas nouveau, des attaques comme celles qui sont commises à Nairobi, New York, Bali, Casablanca, Madrid, Beslan et de Londres ont récemment secoué la conscience du monde entier pour son ampleur et sa cruauté délibérée.Le fait que beaucoup de groupes armés opérant dans d'aujourd'hui flexibles réseaux internationaux utilisant des tactiques telles que les attentats-suicides, il est encore plus difficile à traquer les responsables et prévenir de futures attaques.

Le nouvel environnement de sécurité mondiale née le 11 Septembre, 2001 a conduit à des abus par les gouvernements dans le contexte de la «guerre contre le terrorisme» menée par les Etats-Unis.Les nouvelles doctrines de sécurité ont tendu le concept de «guerre» menant à des zones auparavant considérées comme spécifiques à l'application de la loi, et ont promu l'idée que les droits de l'homme peut être coupé quand il s'agit de détention, d'interrogatoire et la poursuite des suspects "terroristes" manifestement contraires à la présomption d'innocence et les droits humains des suspects présumés.

Je termine ce papier avec la question suivante:«Si les femmes constituent la moitié de toute la communauté.Ainsi sommes-nous pas aussi la moitié de chaque solution? Ces mots ne sont pas le mien.Et il donna un grand combattant pour les droits des femmes. Son nom était Harriet Taylor Mill, a vécu en Angleterre au 19ème siècle et a été la grande dame de le philosophe John Stuart Mill

Pour cette raison, les conséquences du conflit sur les droits humains, y compris les effets pratiques sur les femmes, ne peut pas être complète et durable que si les femmes jouent un rôle actif dans tous les processus de paix et de mécanismes est, il doit cesser la discrimination contre les femmes.

Dans le processus de paix dans les efforts pour maintenir la paix, les stratégies à mettre fin à l'impunité et empêcher de futurs conflits et de reconstruction, les femmes sont essentielles et nécessaires.

Je ne suis pas lettré, moins artiste.Je suis un simple étudiant de genre et les femmes, mais je pense que l'artiste et l'artiste, quelle que soit leur niveau de créativité peut et doit apporter sa contribution aux travaux d'entretien complet et une paix durable.Paix, est une partie de la sensibilité de chaque être humain. Il est d'une humeur, donc, être saisi par les sens.Un artiste ou un artiste crée de la beauté, la paix et à inclure dans votre création apporte sa force d'expression pour rendre ce monde un lieu de plaisir, et non de conflit.Moi, je n'ai que la force créatrice, la capacité à exprimer mes sentiments et humeurs, mais qui sont présents si vous le pouvez.

Je vous remercie beaucoup de m'avoir invité à ce lieu de rencontre formidable pour les créateurs de beauté, me tenir à cette conférence et de contribuer un peu vers cette grande tâche qui est entrepris comme c'est la poursuite de la paix.

Merci beaucoup encore une fois.

Ruth Sieglinde Jara Kittel

Free Tunisia Association

2012-04-27T00:15:14Z

Free Tunisia Association is a civil society association for the awakening of democratic citizenship, where the value for freedom and the respect for human rights and of the importance of periodic elections by free and direct universal suffrage, are considered as the essential elements of a democracy.
Among its objectives, it is also focused on strengthening the social and legal framework for human rights and its protection through institutional and legal reform, and by aptitude building among groups and persons; especially empowering vulnerable groups, such as women, children, handicapped groups, senior citizens and minorities of this society; by support, consciousness raising and human rights education.

DM&E Tip: How and When to Use Case Studies

2012-04-26T14:20:39Z

Cross-posted from the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding

When to Use a Case Study

A case study is a research methodology which allows the investigation to maintain all the meaningful characteristics of real-world events and process. A core feature of case study methodology is its multi-perspectival analysis: it considers not just the voice and perspectives of the actors, but also of relevant groups of actors and their interactions.

A case study, in other words, is a story about something interesting and/or unique. That story may be a conflict or context assessment, understanding how and why a particular community changed during and post-project implementation, or a short anecdotal report to donors, headquarters or the media. It can also be used for project or program monitoring and evaluation.

A case study is particularly useful to:

Explain real-life phenomenon which are too complex for other research methodologies, such as surveys or experimental strategies;
Describe phenomenon and the real-life context in which it occurs;
Illustrate certain topics within a phenomenon in a descriptive mode; and,
Explore situations in which causation is difficult to attribute.

Case Study Design

The following elements are generally included in case study design. It is important to note, however, that a case study may not necessarily have a proposition (a hypothesis). For example, an exploratory case study—a study aimed at defining the questions or hypotheses of a subsequent study or determining the feasibility of the desired research or action—such as conflict and context assessments, may not put forth a hypothesis but rather aim to explore and illuminate key dynamics in the conflict and context.

The study’s questions
- What question do you seek to answer with the case study?
Its propositions, if any
- Your hypothesis of why something occurred
Its unit(s) of analysis
- What is the “case”?
The logic linking the data to the proposition
- Linking qualitative and quantitative evidence to your hypothesis
The criteria for interpreting the findings.
- How will you know if your hypothesis was correct?

General Principles to Follow:

Triangulate!

A study which employs more than one method of data collection will be considered more robust. Consider using individual interviews and focus groups to complement each other and to bring out further dynamics and issues. And don’t focus solely on the qualitative: use quantitative methods to gain an overview of the phenomenon (such as its prevalence in the context), and qualitative methods to understand the phenomenon in-depth (how it impacts people and the implications).

“How” and “Why”?

Case study methodology has a particular advantage over other research methodologies when a “how?” or “why?” question is being asked.

Be Flexible

As in any qualitative research, you may begin the study with one or several questions driving the inquiry, but you may discover new key factors during data collection. These might be unexpected patterns or issues which only become evident while conducting the research. These new questions or issues may be posed at the end of the study, thus linking to the possibility of further research.

Hot Resources:

Free Online! Writing Guide: Case Studies by Colorado State University

Free Online! Preparing a Case Study: A Guide for Designing and Conducting a Case Study for Evaluation Input by Palena Neale, Shyam Thapa and Carolyn Boyce

"Moving beyond the Mobile Hype"

2012-04-24T15:01:11Z

“Moving beyond the Mobile Hype” was a debate organized by Hyvos and IICD in Amsterdam, on April 20^th. The event tried to answer the question: Can mobile technology solve the challenges people face in developing countries?

It was clearly a discussion steered from the development angle, but I was hoping that any good example mentioned could be a learning for us, the conflict prevention community.

Unfortunately, this was too optimistic. Some interesting examples were mentioned, but not in detail, so no real implementation insights were shared. The main conclusion of the day was the need to start with the problem we want to solve and then consider the most effective tools to give a solution to the problem. Be solution-driven instead of technology driven! Ups, but this is no so new, any project using technology needs to be aware of this basic premise, so also mobile technologies! I found this main conclusion a bit disappointing.

There was however, a good contribution of Jonathan Gosier ( software developer and co-founder of metaLayer.com).

He pointed that “Everyone these days wants a mobile app – but the question of why and what for is in many cases not asked”. He shared a list of questions that should be asked before considering a new mobile solution. These are:

- Is it a local solution? Is it locally sustainable?
Always consider how to ensure that a solution is sustainable locally – e.g. through investing in local entrepreneurs, finding ways to affect local culture, etc. Do not forget that local ownership can make the difference.

- Which is the context?

Always consider the context offered by the environment within which a solution is implemented: the culture, the resources, etc. For example, what can you achieve with text messages if most of the population is illiterate?

- Are we supporting Producers or only Consumers?
Production is just as important as consumption. There is more focus on pushing content for consumption to the developing world. There is however not enough focus on supporting the local production processes

- What is the relation of the Effects to the Affects?
What are we really accomplishing, both before and after a tool is launched? How are we really affecting society in the long term thanks to the technology that we launch?

The event continued with a discussion panel that introduced an interesting concept: “pilotitis”, the challenge posed by initiating several pilot projects targeting end-users; which are not continued and not coordinated. Creating skepticism among end-users as no results are booked and no problems solved. This is an interesting learning because it is general practice to use pilots before launching any technical solution and there is definitely a major need for coordination of initiatives.

Some interesting insights were shared about how to use mobile phones to provide better health assistance. However, not much was said about its usage in politically sensitive situations like elections, demonstrations or conflicts. None of the difficulties of politically sensitive processes like verification of information of accessibility to the tools were discussed. In my opinion, there is still a lot to say about “moving beyond the mobile hype” and how can we use new tools to solve old issues.

Documenting Peacebuilding: Case Studies

2012-04-23T15:56:37Z

Cross-posted from the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding

Case studies are a terrific, low-cost way to document something interesting in project implementation and evaluation. They provide an opportunity for reflection, learning and the sharing of lessons learnt in a safe and secure manner, and also allow for the easy presentation, dissemination and digestion of complex phenomena and data sets.

Hot Tip! Check out Mark Rogers’ post on the Learning Portalon how case studies can support reflective practice.

And yet, there are not many publically available case studies relating to peacebuilding. Perhaps this relates to the overall lack of transparency and maturity in peacebuilding’s evaluation processes and the infrequent documentation of our reflections. In any case, one of the more recent publications of peacebuilding case studies is Craig Zelizer and Robert Rubinstein’s Building Peace: Practical Reflections from the Field. It’s an excellent book rich with insight on the praxis of peacebuilding.

Hot Resource!Check out Mercy Corps’ recent set of case studies (Uganda, Indonesia) exploring the effectiveness of poverty reduction initiatives when paired with peacebuilding activities.

So, what is a case study, and how can it be used?

Unique Stories

In technical jargon, a case study is “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context,” and which allows the investigation to maintain all the meaningful characteristics of real-world events and processes.[1] A case study, in other words, is a story about something unique.

Hot Resource!Preparing a Case Study: A Guide for Designing and Conducting a Case Study for Evaluation Inputby Palena Neale, Shyam Thapa and Carolyn Boyce

Within this frame there are three types of case studies:

Exploratory case study

These are meant to determine the feasibility of future works, such as research or an intervention. You might use an exploratory case study in the design phase of a project: to determine the feasibility of a project. In some ways an assessment mission sent to assess the possibility of an intervention in a specific context could be considered exploratory if the documentation is rigorous enough (and there is an express intent to present that information as case study research).

Descriptive case study

This case study presents a complete description of the phenomena in its context. You might use a descriptive case study in the design or evaluation phases of a project: to understand the interplay between conflict dynamics and context dynamics together within a specific geographic frame (i.e., a specific community or nation-state, etc.).

Explanatory case study

This type of case study presents cause-effect relationships in order to explain how and why events happened and how they are connected. For example, you would use this type of case study to explore in-depth how the outcomes of a particular intervention occurred in a specific community (if cause-effect relationship can indeed be drawn, otherwise you would be employing more of a descriptive case study).

Clearly, there are a whole range of applications of case studies in peacebuilding. And as mentioned in the beginning, case studies can be relatively cheap in comparison to other evaluation or research methods, and provide an excellent opportunity for reflection and learning—which in my view does not occur often enough. But it is important to keep in mind that case studies can be difficult to generalize across contexts (or ‘universes’ as a researcher might say).

The Peacebuilding Story

All of this sounds well and good, documenting interesting phenomena for learning and so on, but what specifically might we use case studies for? Let’s look at a few examples.

All theatre, literature and good storytelling revolve around some form of conflict. John Wayne, Rambo and their video descendants attest to the magnetic attraction of the drama of violent conflict. Peacebuilding can and needs to be equally dramatic to capture people’s imagination and interest.[2]

Reporting to Donors, Stakeholders, HQ and the Media

Is there a particularly interesting story or anecdote from project implementation that you think other people should know about? Given the frequent emphasis on voices and perspectives, case study methodology can be a good tool for reporting that story, and why it is special and/or unique, including its implications, to wider audiences.

An example might be an individual who has made tremendous strides towards transforming conflict within their community as a result of the intervention. You might prepare a set of interview questions for the individual and some of the people s/he interacts with to better understand how and why the individual was able to transform that situation.

Deep Monitoring

If you have quantitative data that suggests success or problem areas in program implementation, and you want to dig underneath this broad, generalized data to look at ‘how’ and ‘why’ change did or did not occur, the use of case study methodology can provide supporting documentation to answer those questions.

For example, while implementing a community empowerment and political participation project in several communities, you notice that one community in particular is not performing on par with the others. Attendance to trainings, workshops and other project activities is low, and the participant return rate and knowledge retention is low. A case study of that particularly community might help you better understand why the project is not as successful as it could be—and you can compare this case study to one of the communities that performed exceptionally well.

Assessment and Evaluation

Case study methodology allows you to dig deeper into the situation in which you are working, or seek to work, to better understand existing capacities and dynamics. For example, you are preparing a country-wide intervention in a country you have not worked in before. Do communities X and Y, in the eastern region of the country, experience similar conflicts and dynamics as communities A and B in the north? Why or why not? How should the intervention be tailored in order to accommodate these needs and dynamics? What are the key considerations in each of these communities, and how and why do they differ?

And don’t forget to share your case study with the community of peacebuilders through the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding! Check out some of the case studies we currently have available here.

Hot Resources

Free Online! Preparing a Case Study: A Guide for Designing and Conducting a Case Study for Evaluation Inputby Palena Neale, Shyam Thapa and Carolyn Boyce

Free Online! Check out Mercy Corps’ recent set of case studies (Uganda, Indonesia, Lessons Learned on Measuring Impact) exploring the effectiveness of poverty reduction initiatives when paired with peacebuilding activities.

Free Online! Check out Mercy Corps’ recent case study on pastoralists, drought and conflict in Ethiopia

Jonathan White is the Content Manager for the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuildingat Search for Common Ground. Views expressed herein do not represent SFCG, the Learning Portal or its partners or affiliates.

[1] Robert Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Second Edition, Applied Social Research Methods Series Volume 5 (London: Sage Publications, 1994) p. 3.

[2] Lisa Schirch, Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2005), pp. 1.

Should states pact with criminals?

2012-04-23T14:49:22Z

Last week El Salvador celebrated its first day without a single homicide in almost three years. This seems to be the consequence of a deal cut between president Mauricio Funes and the two main Salvadorean gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. The easy criticism would be to dismiss such an agreement as an appalling example of an incompetent government yielding to criminal gangs. Yet, the success of such settlement would mean that weak states—despite their limited resources—may establish dialogues with the segments that are the sources of instability. If brutal and powerful drug bands are responsive to an ephemeral ceasefire, maybe they would also be willing to engage in dialogues intended to find ways to air their grievances and fulfill their aspirations peacefully.

Although it is morally questionable that a government should negotiate with gangs that have shown an appalling disregard for life and suffering, what is the alternative for a weak state lacking the police, courts prisons, intelligence and revenuenecessary to provide security for its people? This is not the case of a corrupt government making deals with criminals, but of a weak state trying to avoid collapsing into lawlessness.

The situation in Mexico, where the militarized crackdown on drug mafias has caused a dramatic surge in violence with no end in sight should caution against the perils of adopting such an approach. A different attitude would be to recognize the limited capacities of the Salvadorean state and that its gangs are not only part of Salvadorean society but also an expression of its failure. One should be careful to avoid the misleading premise that criminals and the citizens they prey upon are two irreconcilable groups. This distinction does not address the fundamental problems that underlie violence.

Many criminals are citizens for whom the only path towards meaning and recognition is paved with violence because they see no reasonable alternatives at hand. A persistent lack of opportunities—e.g. health, education and employment—will make sure that the maturing crops of youth remain feeding the cadres of criminals gangs. How can they be encouraged to become law-abiding citizens instead of vicious mobsters? Every society has a right to punish its criminals in order to serve justice, but it also has the duty to provide them with the kind of opportunities that would prevent them from becoming criminals in the first place.

Simplifying Indonesia’s realities does not do anyone any good

2012-04-23T12:25:06Z

In “Cameron calls on Islam to embrace democracy and reject extremism” of 12 April 2012 the speech of Prime Minister David Cameron at the Al-Azhar University in Jakarta is described. Cameron’s comments that ‘Indonesia shows that (..) democracy and Islam can flourish alongside each other’will do neither Indonesia nor the countries it is supposed to inspire any good.

Firstly, by simplifying Indonesia as only being a democracy and Muslim, Cameron overlooks the great diversity of the population and the many components that have contributed to its current relative prosperity.

Secondly, it is time for Western leaders such a Cameron to recognize that economic and political development of many former developing countries, including Indonesia,require a new discourse and means of engagement. Merely celebrating their ‘inspirational path’ of development does not do any justice to the position they have in nowadays international community.

Lastly, the emphasis on democracy while in the same breath telling Muslims around the world what to do goes against the core principle of democracy. Part of the freedom of choice enshrined in democracy is the choice as to whether or not people want any ideology or religion to influence their country. Therefore questioning whether or not Islam and democracy can ‘flourish alongside each other’ is more of a criticism on what choices people make, than on the effectiveness of the system itself.

Instead, Cameron should recognize that Islam being its majority religion and democracy its political system are only two of the many aspects that constitute modern-day Indonesia. The prosperity and development of a country depends on much more. Only with such an understanding can the other countries that Cameron calls on to follow the example of Indonesia truly learn from its history.

DM&E Tip: Evaluation Utilization

2012-04-19T14:02:36Z

Cross-posted from the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding

So, you want to improve your evaluation utilization processes? Fantastic! Thankfully many other fields and organizations have gone through this process, and their documentation and learning provide important lessons for peacebuilding.

Hot Resource! Evaluation Needs Assessment by Johanna Morariu

The first step should be to figure out what the evaluation landscape currently looks like.

You’ll want to consult internal guidance notes on evaluation process, and roles and responsibilities (such as Terms of Reference templates, Evaluation Guidelines, etc.). Look for existing gaps, short-falls or duplications in the evaluation process.

Pay particular attention to what happens after the evaluation report is finished. This stage is called the ‘feedback loop,’ and consists of two facets: internal learning and external sharing.

Hot Resource! Capacity and Organizational Readiness for Evaluation (CORE) Tool by Johanna Morariu, Ehren Reed and Kathy Brennan

Internal Learning

In Designing for Results, Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers suggest assigning the role of ‘learning manager’ to the evaluation manager. This person is then responsible to put in place and implement processes to support facilitated learning and the institutionalization and operationalization of that learning.1

Consider using facilitated reflection and learning processes with key individuals in the organization who have a stake in and/or responsibility for the evaluation and its findings. This might include project staff and thematic specialists for example.

Hot Tip! “Sometimes it is helpful to focus solely on the evaluation conclusions in the first conversation and leave the recommendations for the next discussion. This allows the project team to focus on the findings and to have a rare opportunity to discuss assumptions, principles and techniques outside the context of the day-to-day pressure of implementation.”2

But learning should occur beyond just the implementing project staff. How will the knowledge contained in the evaluation inform future programming? And how will that knowledge be shared with the global community of peacebuilders?

Hot Tip! Don’t forget to create a ‘learning document’ that can be distributed throughout the organization or, even better, shared publically—on the Learning Portal perhaps!

External Sharing

As a field, we still seem to be figuring out the best way to facilitate field-wide learning. It’s a complicated task as designing structures to support learning can be quite difficult in professional environments. We’re still figuring it all out, but with the pre-existence of a range of networking structures such as the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, Peace and Collaborative Development Network, Peace Portal and Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding, we are well on our way!

________________________________________________________

Jonathan White is the Content Manager of the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding at Search for Common Ground. Views expressed herein do not represent SFCG, the Learning Portal or its partners or affiliates.

From land grabs to conflict

2012-04-18T11:17:48Z

Following on my blog post on food and water scarcity, in this post I will highlight a concrete example of the consequences of this global issue: food and water scarcity fuels the purchase of cheap lands for cultivation, with a large majority being bought on the African continent. These so-called land grabs are purchased or leased by multinational businesses, in enormous amounts of acres, or by smaller companies, based in the Middle East, Asia and the West. In case of the smaller companies, the land deal is a process of speculation around the fragility of a state, with weak (local) government structures and insecurity over land ownership. Governments in these situations have limited bargaining power.

Limited bargaining power or not, the governments and land grabbers alike argue that the emergence of agricultural companies on the continent encourages the local economy and creates jobs. Governments and land grabbers also often state that the locals simply do not have the knowledge and resources to cultivate the land in a way that renders the country self-sustainable and that the foreign companies are there to help and in the process yield a profit. Both statements can be easily overruled; much of the food and capital created by the land purchases leaves the countries, those employed in the companies receive low wages and most of the local population living in the area has been stripped of their livelihoods as they were evicted from their land. What is left is that uncomfortable feeling of newly styled colonialism, where the foreigners arrive to allegedly “teach the local population how to improve their lives”.

Then there is the absurdity of the situation itself. Agricultural lands are sold without any local consultation. Most of the lands are either communally owned, or have been cultivated by the same family for generations, but both without the official ownership documents. The land is sold or leased (in extreme cases contracts for up to 99 years) without the people living on it, or depending on it, being informed. People have been chased from their homes and lands, losing their means of livelihood. As the majority of agricultural workers are women, this burden strikes them even harder, which weakens their already fragile position. And land grabs are not a random occurrence, as is visible in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where almost 50% of the agricultural land is currently owned or leased by foreigners.

The land grabbing model has clear security implications affecting the local and international community. As it can result in local food scarcity, local land scarcity and internal displacement, it has the potential to trigger conflict and social unrest. Local and international legislation to prevent land grabbing and therefore displacement, scarcity and potential conflict is of paramount importance.

Evaline Schot
Policy and Advocacy Intern, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict

Maximizing Learning in Evaluation: Utilization Processes

2012-04-16T14:00:15Z

This was originally posted on the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding.

So, you’ve just finalized the evaluation report for the most recently completed project. You just approved the final draft of the report, and you and your staff are looking forward to not having an evaluator ‘all up in your business.’

But what will you do with the evaluation? How will the lessons, challenges, and opportunities in the report be learned, institutionalized and operationalized in future programming?

Evaluation utilization is something many individuals and organizations struggle with. For one, we are all busy, and because of this we are hesitant to devote time to something that does not have a deadline attached to it. Underlying this issue however is something deeper and more profound: the degree to which we value learning in our professional—perhaps even vocational?—lives, and the presence of supporting structures at the individual, organizational and field-wide levels.

Insert Witty Title Here

But before diving in, what is evaluation utilization?

Evaluation utilization is the process by which the findings of an evaluation are shared, learned and institutionalized.

It may occur at the individual, organizational or field-wide levels.

Michael Quinn Patton, one of the most well-known and influential evaluators in the world, has written extensively about evaluation utilization and the ways in which evaluators can increase the utilization of their work by clients.

Hot Resource! Check out Evaluation Utilization Checklistby Michael Quinn Patton

While it is important for the evaluator to take on the challenge of constructing a utilization-focused evaluation design, it is equally important for the evaluand (the commissioner of the evaluation) to develop and devote time to utilization and learning processes.

Structures for Internal Learning

There is a wide range of ways in which an organization can learn from its evaluation reports. Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers suggest assigning a formal Learning Facilitator role to the individual managing the evaluation.[1] That person would then be responsible for developing a facilitated process to ensure that the learning and recommendations encapsulated in the evaluation report are acted upon.

Hot Resource! Check out Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activitiesby Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers, Chapters 8-10.

Such a process might include creating a ‘learning group’ composed to key individuals relating to that project and its evaluation implications, and/or the creation of a ‘learning document’ that can be widely distributed throughout the organization—or, even better, distributed throughout the field of peacebuilding.

Hot Resource! Check out Reflective Peacebuilding: A Planning, Monitoring and Learning Toolkitby John Paul Lederach, Reina Neufeldt and Hal Culbertson for Catholic Relief Services, pages 67-70 for more on learning documents.

Many organizations have processes to cover internal learning. The field of peacebuilding as a whole is still figuring out—one might even say learning—how to responsibly share evaluations and their findings publically, but more specifically with other like-minded organizations and individuals.

Pushing the Field of Peacebuilding Forward

It would seem that much of the learning that takes place in peacebuilding occurs either at the individual or organizational level. With a few exceptions such as the Peace Portal, there are by-and-large few processes and/or structures (real or imagined) to facilitate field-wide learning and to drive peacebuilding’s methodological discourse, including M&E, forward.

But things are changing.

There is an increasing realization that there is a real need to share evaluation reports, and to collectively learn, as a community of peacebuilders, what is effective, what isn’t, and under what conditions. Projects at the Alliance for Peacebuilding such as the Peacebuilding Evaluation Project and the Women’s Empowerment Demonstration Project evidence this fact. Indeed, the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding itself is founded on the premise that there is indeed a need to share and collectively learn from evaluation reports and findings.

One of the strongest findings of the Peacebuilding Evaluation Project is the need to shift the culture of peacebuilding evaluation towards one that is transparent and which embraces open inquiry and shared learning. The evidence points to increasing mass and momentum towards such a shift.

The question is no longer if we as a global community of peacebuilders will share and collectively learn from our experiences in a collaborative and transparent spirit, but when.

Hot Resource! Evaluation Design Checklist by Daniel Stufflebeam

Hot Resource! Evaluation Needs Assessment by Johanna Morariu

Hot Resource! Evaluation Utilization Checklist by Michael Quinn Patton

Hot Resource! Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities by Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers, Chapters 8-10.

Hot Resource! Reflective Peacebuilding: A Planning, Monitoring and Learning Toolkit by John Paul Lederach, Reina Neufeldt and Hal Culbertson for Catholic Relief Services

[1] Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers, Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities, p. 179

Programme writing and reporting training

2012-04-11T14:20:44Z

Programme and proposal writing can be classified as a sport on its own. There is a huge competition among organizations and individuals to secure enough funds for implementing their own programmes and projects. The challenge in this competition lies in writing the best proposal; to convince the donor to pick them.

On March 28, 2012 I attended an Intern training on programme writing and reporting, initiated by Euroclio. In this training, interns from different organizations discussed several individual programmes and general challenges in writing proposals to (specific) donors.

To me, recognition of challenges in proposal writing was important to hear. These challenges were highlighted by the exercise of filling in a logical framework, where many participants faced the same problems.

Proposal writing remains a challenge for every organization and individual.

A challenge I accept!

For an overview of the general discussion points during the training, click here.

DM&E Tip: Measurable Goals and Objectives

2012-04-09T17:48:21Z

Developing measurable goals and objectives is an important step in the project design process, and one that seems to be frequently overlooked in peacebuilding programming. We have a tendency to not only overpromise the results, but also on the timeframe the results could be realistically achieved in. We need to do better, not just to be accountable to donors or even to ourselves, but to the people we serve.

Clearly stated goals and objectives provide the scope, focus and purpose to the project. Goals link the project to the desired change in the broader conflict, while objectives describe the knowledge, attitudinal and behavioral changes that are prerequisites to achieving the goal. In other words, goals operationalize impacts and objectives operationalize outcomes (results).

Hot Resource! Check out Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers’ Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities, Chapters 3 and 4 for more on measurable goals, objectives and indicators.

Generally, there are four pitfalls to be avoided when conceptualizing measurable goals and objectives.

1. Defining goals too narrowly so that they appear to be objectives or activities; defining objectives so broadly or narrowly that they appear to be goals or activities

Narrow Goal: Media in Kosovo will prevent violence between religious sectors through increased professionalism gained from training.

Broad Objective: To prevent election-related violence in Kenya.

Remedy: Think in terms of what the activities are designed to achieve. Shift thinking away from describing activities and toward describing the knowledge, attitude or behavior changes those activities are intended to achieve in the project participants and/or context. This will result in a stronger orientation towards results rather than activities. Remember, activities are action steps taken to get to objectives or goals.

Goal: Media professionals will strengthen capacity to raise awareness of and promote religious freedom in Kosovo.

Objective: Journalists in Kosovo will report more balanced news stories and facilitate on-air dialogues related to issues of religious diversity after training.

2. Stating implementation or operational benchmarks as goals or objectives

Goal as operational benchmark: Training will be provided to 25% of Kenyans to help them shift their identity from tribal membership to seeing themselves as a Kenyan first.

Objective as operational benchmark or an output: To increase the number of mediators trained in Rwanda by 15%.

Remedy: Write the goal in terms of changes that will occur in the knowledge, attitude or behavior in participants. The focus is thereby shifted to the resultrather than the activity conducted to achieve it.

Goal: There will be a 25% increase in the number of Kenyans who identify themselves as Kenyans first before tribal affiliation.

Objective: Mediation centers will increase capacity to effectively mediate and resolve land-based disputes.

Hot Resource! A Guide to Actionable Measurement by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

3. Writing compound goals or objectives

Compound Goal: To develop the capacity and professionalism of the Burundian policeand media and journalists to manage difficult situations and prevent further violence.

Compound Objective: To contribute to the counter-radicalization process in Indonesiaand rebut violent and extremist theological arguments that support terrorism.

Remedy: Focus on one target audience and/or change at a time. Structure the goals and objectives statements so that the target audience for the project is thesubject and the change in knowledge, attitude or behavior is the verb.

Hot Tip! Your goal or objective might be too broad if it has ‘and’ in it.

Goal: (1) Burundian police forces will develop the capacity and professionalism to successfully manage and de-escalate difficult situations with potentially high levels of tensions that could erupt in conflict in the period leading up to the 2010 elections. (2) To develop the capacity and professionalism of journalists and media outlets to prevent the media from being co-opted into public violence.

Objective: (1) Prisoners in Indonesian state and regional facilities will increase their knowledge of Islamic theological arguments against violence.

Hot Resource! Check out Catholic Relief Services’ Guidance for Developing Logical and Results Frameworks by Carlisle J. Levine

4. The passive voice

Passive voice Goal: To build the capacity of the justice sector in Timor-Leste [action] to achieve equal and timely access for men, women and children [subject].

Remedy: Rephrase the sentence so that the subject performs the action expressed in the verb. This is referred to as the active voice and makes the sentence meaning clearer for readers. Active voice sentences are also more concise than those in passive voice because fewer words are required to express them. Passive voice sentences are easily recognized because the verb will always include a form of be, such as am, is, was, were, are or been.

Active voice Goal: “The men, women and children of Timor-Leste [subject] will achieve equal and timely access to justice [result] by building the capacity [action] of the justice sector.”

Hot Tip! The Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding is preparing to release a series of self-guided training modules that breaks each phase of the project cycle down into manageable steps, including practice exercises! Check back this summer for more details.

Hot Resources

Free Online! Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Activities by Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers for Search for Common Ground

Free Online! Catholic Relief Services’ Guidance for Developing Logical and Results Frameworks by Carlisle J. Levine

Free Online! Measuring Progress in Conflict Environments (MPICE): A Metrics Fram...edited by John Agoglia, Michael Dziedzic and Barbara Sotirin

Free Online! A Guide to Actionable Measurement by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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Jonathan White is the Manager of the Learning Portal for DM&E for Peacebuilding atSearch for Common Ground. Views expressed herein do not represent SFCG, the Learning Portal, its partners or affiliates.