New approaches give promise to peace

What exactly is “peacebuilding,” and how does it differ from peacekeeping and peacemaking?

It’s a new area of emphasis for the United Nations, and Carolyn McAskie will discuss the world’s current peacebuilding efforts – and challenges – in her public lecture on Thursday, Nov. 22. Appointed last year to head up the UN’s Peacebuilding Support Office, Ms. McAskie is the featured speaker for Dalhousie’s second Lloyd Shaw Lecture on Public Affairs.

“We’re looking at ways to help countries that are emerging from chronic conflict situations,” she explains. “In the past, we’ve been able to assist with development and emergency response tools but what happens after that?”  

The international community is now cultivating specific tools and mechanisms to empower countries to make successful transitions toward peace and stability in the aftermath of war and violence. Embarking on their second year, the UN's Peacebuilding Commission and its support office were established at the 2005 World Summit, to address the need for strategic and integrated approaches to achieving sustainable peace.  

Lecture The Lloyd Shaw Lecture on Public Affairs at Dalhousie presents views and ideas on critical contemporary public policy issues. All are welcome to attend Ms. McAskie’s lecture, “The International Peacebuilding Challenge: Can New Players and New Approaches Bring New Results?” It starts at 7:30 p.m. in Ondaatje Hall in the Marion McCain Building. For more details, see www.socialwork.dal.ca or call 494-1345.

“Peacebuilding is a long-term process,” says Ms. McAskie, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. “It entails all of the elements you need to have in place to ensure the country won’t relapse back into conflict. If you don’t have them in place, all you’re likely to get is a ceasefire.”

Nearly half of the countries emerging from war end up backsliding into violence again within five years when peace accords fail to stick, such as Angola in 1993 and Rwanda in 1994. Liberia, Somalia and Haiti are other countries that could have benefited years ago from the new approach.

Through its innovative new peacebuilding network, the UN wants to make sure the world’s attention doesn’t shift elsewhere once the fighting stops in a country. But for a peace process to have any real hope, “it has to come from within,” says Ms. McAskie. “It must be owned by the country and its authorities, but more broadly by the local people.” 

A coordinated effort is required by a country's governments, health care and social services, military and police, the justice system, humanitarian relief agencies and other key sectors. Peacebuilding can help establish the right conditions for organizing free and fair elections, rebuilding economies and infrastructure, and meeting citizens' immediate needs – repatriating refugees, for example. In some cases, it might involve fostering political dialogue, through international mediators. In still others, peacekeeping operations involving military deployment may be part of the overall process.

Amid the dire headlines about Iraq and Afghanistan, the media doesn’t shed much light on the promise of new peacebuilding efforts, but they’re starting to show positive results in such countries as Burundi and Sierra Leone, says Ms. McAskie.

“It’s a very exciting and timely endeavor,” says Ms. McAskie. “But it’s going to take great will, and international effort and investment.” 

Prior to her current position, she led the UN’s peacekeeping operations in Burundi and humanitarian efforts in Côte d’Ivoire. She also served at the UN Secretariat in New York for five years, as Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator. A graduate of the University of British Columbia, Ms. McAskie also held a number of high-level posts during her 30-year career with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).