Empowerment or Imposition? Dilemmas of Local Ownership in Post‐Conflict Peacebuilding Processes

Abstract

This article examines questions of local ownership in post-conflict peacebuilding and makes the case that the complex relationship between insiders and outsiders lies at the very heart of contemporary peacebuilding processes. While the discourse of local ownership has increasingly become part of the vocabulary of post-conflict peacebuilding, the discussion to date on both the meanings and the practices of local ownership in peacebuilding contexts remains underdeveloped. This article is therefore an effort to add substance to the local ownership debate, and outlines two forms of peacebuildingliberal and communitarian-which contain markedly different assumptions concerning the role of local actors in peacebuilding processes. Ultimately, the article suggests that the search for ways to operationalize local ownership principles remains one of the key challenges of contemporary peacebuilding, and outlines a vision of peacebuilding as cultural exchange as a way forward.

Cidadania e empoderamento local em contextos de consolidação da paz

“…De um lado, houve a reavaliação de inúmeras operações de paz e das respetivas limitações na promoção de uma situação de paz sustentável em países como a Somália, o Iraque e Angola (Krause e Jütersonke, 2006;Duffield, 2007;Donais, 2009;Francis, 2010). De outro lado, a emergente conexão entre as agendas de segurança e desenvolvimento, espelhadas nas políticas de consolidação da paz (Duffield, 2001), bem como o trabalho de vários atores com mecanismos de resolução de conflitos localmente mais integrados, resultaram na importação de conceitos do desenvolvimento para a agenda de paz e segurança, incluindo o conceito de apropriação local e empoderamento (Lederach, 1997;Francis, 2010;Ramsbotham et al, 2011;Richmond, 2011;Donais, 2012;Richmond, 2012).…”

“…Na agenda de consolidação da paz, o termo predominante é apropriação local que, de maneira geral, se entende como "o grau de controlo que atores nacionais possuem sobre processos políticos internos" (Donais, 2012: 1). No caso de contextos pós -guerra, indica o grau de envolvimento dos atores locais nos processos de redesenho e reconstrução das instituições (Donais, 2009;Narten, 2009). Nestes contextos a apropriação local significa que, não obstante a intervenção externa, o 'dono' do processo é/deve ser o 'local' ou 'nacional', para assegurar a sustentabilidade dos processos (Ban Ki -moon, 2009;Narten, 2009;UN -PSO, 2011).…”

Sustainable Climate Change Adaptations in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Turkish Cypriot Community’s Adoption of Pomegranate Farming

“…As Donais (2009) notes, local ownership is relatively rare in post-conflict development initiatives, since the external actors tend to reserve "most key decision-making authority" (p. 4). Perhaps the interaction between the beekeepers and the EU can best be described as an example of what Donais terms "sustainable peacebuilding" (p. 14).…”

“…Furthermore, their resource challenges made collectivization unlikely as both technical and financial leadership were absent. Once the collective action problem was overcome, we attribute the success of the pomegranate programme to its incorporation of sustainable peacebuilding (Donais 2009). An external actor provided technical knowledge and the initial investment funds, but Turkish Cypriot farmers quickly accepted local ownership of pomegranate farming.…”

Bridging the Chasm between Domestic and International Approaches to Peacebuilding: Conceptual and Institutional Tools*

“…Although it was not clear what local ownership involved, the mantras of ownership and partnership, coordination and coherence, harmonization and alignment quickly became the indispensable principles of mainstream peacebuilding discourse and practice (Chesterman, 2007;Donais, 2009 Richmond, 2006;Tadjbakhsh, 2011). After 9/11, this debate was further affected by the conflation of peacebuilding with international security concerns with the launch of the global war on terror (Tschirgi, 2013).…”