Building peace in complex conflict: the common ground approach

Search for Common Ground (Search) is the largest dedicated peacebuilding organisation in the world, with programmes spanning social cohesion, stabilisation, governance and conflict mediation across 34 countries. We are dedicated to advancing a more lasting and sustainable peace in society and we do this by utilising locally led programmes and inclusive structures at every step of the process. Adequately conducting peacebuilding involves all members of a community, which often necessitates engagement with the very parties that are at risk of or already contributing to violence. This article examines Search’s approach to engaging armed groups, drawing from our extensive resource base, long history and experience transforming conflicts across the world.

The world is facing increasingly complex crises, including violent extremism; communal and political violence; lack of trust and confidence between authorities and communities; population displacement; environmental challenges; and pandemics. In regions of high-intensity conflict such as the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes, these challenges are largely intertwined. It is more necessary than ever to add a more holistic approach to familiar humanitarian, peacebuilding and development approaches. There is still a need to provide assistance for the manifestations of these crises, but it is only by addressing the root causes and changing the approaches of conflict actors that we can hope for sustainable peace.

Understand, transform and Do No Harm: the keys to effectively working in conflict zones

Three pillars of Search’s peacebuilding approach are conflict analysis, behaviour transformation and conflict sensitivity. Interventions in conflict zones require a moderated approach, based on an understanding of local dynamics and transforming the behaviour of actors to reduce violence. This must be done while taking into account local dynamics so as to prevent harm to local communities.

Conflict scan analysis to understand the dynamics within communities

A conflict scan is not only a critical tool for understanding local dynamics and effectively guiding programme implementation, but it is also a necessary mechanism allowing local communities to co-construct solutions to the challenges they face based on their own histories and experiences. When organisations implement programmes that are not conflict-sensitive, they can produce rather than reduce conflict. These missteps have important consequences for local communities:

The water infrastructure created in our village to help us has not been integrated into the traditional local governance system, which has led to tensions over management and access to the infrastructure.

A community leader in central Mali Analyse des dynamiques de l’accès à l’eau au Mali, 2022

Before implementing activities, it is imperative that organisations work with communities to analyse their own challenges and create programmes that respond to the priorities of all relevant stakeholders, especially youth, women and religious leaders. More localised conflicts mean there is a need for a more thorough understanding of local dynamics, specifically the ethnic and inter-community context and the relationship between local authorities and communities. Only by understanding the root causes of these conflicts can organisations effectively craft conflict-sensitive programming, which optimises the quality and responsiveness of community-based interventions.

Transforming the way actors deal with conflict to reduce violence

One of the core insights from decades of conflict transformation experience is that conflict is normal, while violence is not. Recent trends in the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Myanmar and the Great Lakes countries show that conflicts are becoming more violent, and that this violence is increasingly occurring off the battlefield and in communities. For example, in Nigeria in 2019, farmer–herder conflicts killed more people than Boko Haram. Despite efforts by governments, the number of victims is increasing and communities’ ways of life are being drastically changed. Conflict transformation, our approach of choice, requires taking into account local dynamics by involving communities more fully in peacebuilding as they have the best grasp of the realities in which they live. It utilises a more holistic approach that takes into account the need for acceptance of oneself and the other as part of a culturally diverse community. Better community engagement through tools, such as participatory theatre and media for peace, changes the ways conflict actors perceive themselves, others and their positions in conflict situations.

In Central Africa and Sierra Leone, radio DJs and talk show hosts have played an important role in transforming religious conflicts by engaging directly with members of their communities, dispelling hate and promoting peaceful resolutions to disputes. In Mali, we engage with bloggers and internet users to fight rumours and misinformation that affect peacebuilding, development and humanitarian efforts. These programmes show that the media and new digital technologies are important means of consolidating durable peace for communities in conflict zones (Box 1).

Box 1: Just Future Programme
From 2021 to 2025, Search and its partners are implementing a programme (Just Future) aimed at improving the accessibility, responsiveness and accountability of security and justice institutions and the inclusivity of political decision-making and peace processes in six countries (Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Niger and South Sudan). The programme aims to mobilise civil society for collective action and advocacy that contribute to acceleration and localisation, as encompassed in Sustainable Development Goal 16. As part of the programme, Search organised a public broadcast on 27 November 2022 in Gao, northern Mali. The programme brought together local authorities such as the central sub-prefect of Gao, as well as youth, civil society organisations, administrative and communal authorities, traditional chiefs, peace ambassadors and journalists. It included a roundtable discussion, a skit by a local theatre troupe and a comedy play inviting the authorities to encourage the involvement of youth and women in public life. Participants called for more and regular activities of this kind in such a programme, to offer them a free exchange space with all social strata.

The Do No Harm approach

The wrong responses can fuel conflict in already polarised communities. In conflict zones, a conflict-sensitive approach is necessary to avoid fuelling existing conflicts and to truly ‘do no harm’. This requires constant engagement with members of communities and a clear understanding of local dynamics at all stages of intervention. For example, after the atrocities in central Mali between February 2019 and March 2020, conventional reporting attributed the massacre to ethnic conflict between Fulani and Dogon communities. Our reconciliation work showed that many other reasons, including rumours and hate speech, contributed to the massacre, so that understanding, rather than an ethnic conflict lens, informed our intervention. These experiences underscore the need to seek locally rooted and inclusive pathways to peace.

Trust and interdependence as the glue between conflict actors

Communities living in conflict zones fear armed groups, but they also often fear the armed forces that are supposed to protect them. These fears are compounded by tensions among community factions. There is thus a need not only to strengthen collaboration between security forces and communities, but also to create fair and sustainable interdependence between groups in communities.

Building trust between armed forces and local communities

The proliferation of armed groups, including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) , has triggered heavy-handed responses from security forces. This has created a situation where civilians are targeted both by violent extremist groups and by state armed forces. Stability depends on security forces holding human dignity at the centre of their approach and having collaborative relationships with communities based on mutual respect and trust. To this end, Search works to strengthen the institutional processes of security forces so that engagement with communities, human rights organisations and others is standardised. This includes facilitating national and regional working relationships between security forces and non-state actors, strengthening relationships between security forces and community members at the local level, and working with governments to enact policies and institutionalise practices promoting effective security engagement with communities. This enables security forces, civilian government agencies, civil society and religious leaders to work together to address threats by resolving the root causes of conflict. The issue of trust and accountability is also relevant to foreign forces operating in-country. Our interventions facilitate collaboration between local communities and international military actors to reduce public resentment and build trust (Box 2).

Box 2: Improving civil–military cooperation
From November 2019 to June 2022, Search and the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) implemented a programme to improve civil–military cooperation in the Liptako Gourma region. A Malian army officer said:

“The [training] sessions improved my knowledge of how to deal with civilians. First, it allowed me to discuss with my police and gendarmerie colleagues the behaviours that do not facilitate collaboration between civilians and the Fondation pour le Développement au Sahel and to initiate activities aimed at restoring trust.”

A warrant officer from the gendarmerie in Burkina Faso said: The knowledge acquired from the different trainings allowed the military to be better equipped to approach civilians. We have been able to carry out activities together such as cleaning public spaces.

Building interdependence within communities

Communal tension, which has long been a defining (and unaddressed) feature of conflict-affected communities like those in the Sahel, has resulted in entrenched ethnic divisions, increased identity politics and cyclical violence. Our approach prevents further escalation while laying the foundations for long-term interdependent relationships among people from different groups. As ethnic conflict in the Sahel is so deeply linked to livelihoods, our work, in part, demonstrates how relationships across dividing lines can lead to livelihood dividends by building economic links between farmers and herders, strengthening local trade and opening the value chain on key market segments. For example, in the Lake Chad Basin, through the Economic and Social Inclusion Recovery project, Search’s approach demonstrates the possibility of strengthening human capital, social cohesion, and sustainable management of natural resources in targeted territories. The project has improved social cohesion between internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities in Jere, Nigeria, and has inspired elders to invite youth to participate in sociopolitical gatherings from which they were formerly excluded. Over the past decade, building interdependence within communities has played a critical role in setting the stage for formal peace negotiations, mediating conflicts over land and natural resources, building consensus around reforms in the context of political transitions, and facilitating violence-free elections.

Increasing community involvement in developing sustainable responses

Search’s years of experience have demonstrated that it is crucial to involve communities in the management of challenges that concern them directly. In recent years, insider mediation has emerged as a process to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts by involving trusted local personalities, such as civic, social, religious or political leaders, in local, national and international peace efforts. This approach relies on the influence, legitimacy and knowledge of those individuals who are themselves an intrinsic part of the conflict context. As such, they can engage rapidly and directly with disputing parties from across social divides beyond the reach of international and regional mediation actors. Over the past decade, Search has trained mediators and helped them to resolve thousands of conflicts, including in Burundi, the DRC, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Yemen and Zimbabwe. These local peacebuilders come from diverse backgrounds, allowing them to address a wide variety of conflicts including between farmers and herders, youth and security forces, refugees and host populations, or among different ethnic communities.

Mediators are selected on the basis of criteria defined jointly with all partners. These criteria include their ability to commit themselves voluntarily and to listen to the population, their discretion and respect for the community, their ability to manage conflicts while respecting the principle of neutrality, and their ability to lead public debates and make decisions.

Effective local mediation also requires a better understanding of the needs of mediators, particularly in terms of training and support. In Niger, for example, this mainly involves capacity-building in women’s and youth leadership, collaborative approaches to conflict, non-violent mediation and conflict analysis, and gender sensitivity. Successful capacity-building can make local actors true artisans of sustainable peace.

Conclusions and lessons

Despite the importance of emergency interventions to respond to acute needs, it is crucial to frame interventions in the long term. Responding to the root drivers of conflict requires understanding local dynamics and transforming the behaviours of conflict actors. In order to accomplish this, peace-minded organisations must:

• Adopt context- and conflict-sensitive approaches to programming in communities heavily affected by crises. The examples above show that taking into account the culture of local communities and including them as genuine actors, not just beneficiaries, by giving them a place in programmes allows for better peacebuilding at the local level. This requires adaptation of traditional intervention tools – local participatory theatre, for example – and co-construction of programmes with communities in unstable and difficult-to-access areas.
• Adopt multistakeholder and inclusive processes to establish sustainable standards. To achieve sustainable results, it is necessary to work with all actors, including media regulators, religious communities, victims’ advocates and youth, to ensure that they all contribute to maintaining the social peace to which they have contributed.
• Improve collaboration among peace, development and humanitarian actors. Actors in the humanitarian–development–peace nexus do not communicate their culture or principles sufficiently, nor do they put the need for sustainable peace at the heart of their actions.
• Shift funding to more holistic approaches. The availability of funds plays an important role in shaping responses in communities in conflict. More holistic approaches that address root causes, community-led protection and sustainable peace can strengthen interventions and increase impact. Greater effort is needed to secure funding for holistic responses, and strategies should particularly take into account the nexus when addressing complex conflict areas.

Mike Jobbins is Vice-President for Global Affairs and Partnerships, Allassane Drabo is Regional Director for West Africa and Habibou Bako is Sahel Policy Associate at Search for Common Ground.