Assessing UN Peace Operations at the Local Level: Bridging the Gap?

Abstract

Over the last few years there has been increasing attention to the work the UN is doing on the local level in peacebuilding operations, both in policy and academic circles. It has become increasingly clear that the success of early peacebuilding activities relies on achieving locally owned and contextualised solutions through listening to local needs and understanding socio-political dynamics. Activities of the government and UN peacebuilders aim to instil confidence in the peace process at the local level, through strengthening local authorities and improving service delivery; facilitating reconciliation processes and coordinating support from other UN agencies and international actors. But often their success remains limited. This panel seeks to combine case based studies focusing on the interaction between UN missions and agencies and local state and customary authorities, local groups and population at the local level. It seeks to explore the strengths and failures of current approaches in order to discuss how and if at all the contextualisation of peacebuilding to local circumstances can be achieved.

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