Community-based Approaches to Peacebuilding in Conflict-affected and Fragile Contexts

Commissioned by AusAID through the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC), this 42-page paper explores community-based approaches (CBA) to peacebuilding in conflict-affected and fragile contexts. How can CBA foster resilience, providing survival and coping mechanisms for violence, insecurity, and fragility? It is this question that the GSDRC's Huma Haider addresses here.

As Haider explains, CBA seek to give communities direct control over investment decisions, project planning, execution, and monitoring, through a process that emphasises inclusive participation and management. The basic premise is that local communities are better placed to identify their shared needs and the actions necessary to meet them. Taking charge of these processes facilitates a sense of community ownership, which can contribute to the sustainability of interventions.

Haider's analysis highlights the following key aims of CBA and related issues and challenges:

• Fostering participatory and representative local governance: CBA can promote governance reform by developing outlets for voice and equipping communities with the skills and tools to carry on a range of activities beyond a particular project. Communities are not inherently inclusive, however, and there is often a risk of "elite capture" (Editor's note: a phenomenon in which communities or municipalities are vulnerable to "capture" by local elites, because local power groups can easily collude beyond the control of higher-level institutions and the attention of the media.) Inclusive and participatory processes can also be threatening to dominant groups, resulting in resistance to CBA. Attention thus needs to be paid to targeting specific groups for inclusion, managing elite involvement, and promoting strong mechanisms for transparency.
• Empowerment of local communities: Community-based projects provide communities with the organisational tools and resources to carry out changes and improvements. Empowerment is promoted through the provision of information, inclusive decision-making, capacity building, and the means to implement decisions. In order for empowerment to be genuine, donors need to genuinely relinquish control over decision-making.
• Rapid, efficient, and cost-effective fulfilment of community needs: Minimal bureaucracy at the community level may allow for speedier decision-making and more rapid delivery of outcomes. Cohesive action, however, presupposes the presence of a civic mentality, which is often missing in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Developing such a mentality can take time. In addition, involvement in community programmes can be time-consuming, taking participants away from economic activities. Incentives may thus need to be provided early on to encourage involvement.
• Social capital, coexistence, and social renewal: The creation of non-violent alternative forms of community organisation and inclusive interaction can contribute to building social capital. In addition, the development of a collective vision, cooperation to achieve shared goals, and the creation of safe spaces for dialogue can (re)build trust and foster a sense of interdependence. Where social renewal is treated as an aim in itself, rather than a by-product of CBA, implementers are more likely to proactively facilitate social renewal through activities where outcomes are non-material and not easily observable.
• (Re)establishment of the social contract and state-society relations: A legacy of distrust in government, concerns over patronage and corruption, and weak or non-existent government capacity may result in the exclusion of government from community-based processes. There are concerns, however, that the establishment of parallel processes will undermine the legitimacy of emerging government institutions. It is thus beneficial for CBA to develop linkages between the community and government. This can also extend the reach of community projects and their sustainability.
  

Haider outlines key considerations for planning, setting up, funding, and monitoring CBA. The communication-related considerations are:

• Sensitising communities about CBA and disseminating information about rights and responsibilities;
• Determining whether to rely on existing community institutions or establish new structures;
• Designing an appropriate model to promote inclusive participation and representation;
• Selecting an effective facilitator for community forums and project management;
• Managing the expectations of community members in order to avoid disappointment and disillusionment with CBA;
• Establishing protocols and systems to ensure transparency and accountability; and
  
• Engaging in participatory, ongoing, and long-term monitoring and evaluation (M&E).

Key considerations for the sustainability of CBA she identifies are:

• Comprehensive training and capacity building: Efforts to train community members - and often government officials - on financial management, project cycles, and M&E data collection, as well as technical training relevant to specific project outputs, are required. Equally important is strengthening of skills such as participation and empowerment strategies, relationship-building, conflict management, and social and resource mobilisation.
• Horizontal linkages and externalities: Building social capital and capacity across communities can be achieved through sharing of experiences, peer-to-peer learning, and knowledge transfer. There are also externalities, such as transport infrastructure and environmental and health issues, that require mechanisms that link communities to work on "common good" projects.
• Vertical linkages - local and national government: Securing "buy-in" from emerging government institutions can impart greater legitimacy to CBA. In addition, scaling up small-scale community initiatives across the country and establishing sustainable sources of funding requires the support of government officials and partnerships between communities and government.

The final section of the paper provides an annotated bibliography of specific case studies and evaluations of CBA, highlighting lessons learned and policy recommendations.