News

Rationale

• By peacebuilding we mean, “a comprehensive concept that encompasses, generates, and sustains the full array of processes, approaches, and stages needed to transform conflict toward more sustainable, peaceful relationships.” (Lederach 1997: 35) Peacebuilding is concerned as a result both with change in institutions and social change.
• Despite the advent of the ‘local turn’ within International Relations (Joakim Ojendal, Schierenbeck, & Hughes, 2017; Mac Ginty & Richmond, 2013), peacebuilding as an activity by local actors with agency remains marginal in the literature as a conceptual focus. This initiative aims to contribute to this focus, strengthening this empirical research in a way that bridges disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
• Although there is a growing interdisciplinary literature on peacebuilding in BIH, it exists in a vacuum, largely separated from peacebuilding practice. Peacebuilding practitioners and practice benefit from critical reflection and engagement with academic rigor both to articulate their understandings of peacebuilding practice and also to ask tough questions about what does or doesn’t work and why.
• This is additionally relevant because peacebuilding as both a practice and a literature came of age with the case of BiH (Boutros-Ghali’s UN Agenda for Peace) – this is a critical reflection upon more than 20 years since this advent of peacebuilding as such.

A group of ten government officials and nongovernment employees from across the Ukraine visited Sarajevo from October 15-22, 2017, in the context of a study trip on the topic of the “Role of government, civil society, and private sector in helping internally displaced persons (IDPs) to gain employment”. The goal of the visit was to share Bosnia and Herzegovina’s experience in providing assistance and protecting rights of IDPs after the Dayton Peace Agreement from the viewpoint of BiH’s institutions, nongovernment and international organizations, and private companies. The training and study trip was organized by the Peace Academy Foundation based in Sarajevo with the support of USAID and World Learning.

From January 24. to 31. 2016, the Peace Academy will be the organizer and host of a a training/study visit to Sarajevo and Mostar entitled „Strengthening Conflict Resolution Capacities in War-Affected Communities". The participants of this training will be 10 Ukrainian activists and humanitarian workers from conflict-affected areas who work in various capacities on peacebuilding in the Ukraine. Their particular areas of focus are work with displaced people, education and work with youth, and socially-vulnerable populations.

The goal of the visit is increasing knowledge and skills of the participants in the field of peacebuilding and conflict resolution through examples in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The participants of the program will be able to learn to know the work and lessons learned from actors in BiH regarding peacebuilding.  An important component of the program is connecting small groups of participants with peers from similar professional backgrounds from BiH.

Partners in this project are: Youth Cultural Center „Abrašević" Mostar, Bread of St. Anthony (Trauma Center), Union for Sustainable Return and Integration in BiH, Media Center, Sarajevo Cantonal Center for Social Work, „Sezam" Zenica, „Izvor" Prijedor, „Schüler Helfen Leben" Sarajevo, "SOS Children's Village BiH", "Consortium for Enhancement of Ukrainian Management Education" and„Democratization Policy Council".

The project is supported by USAID and World Learning.