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Lessons Learned from the War-torn Societies Project

1999-01-01

How can you help a country that has just been through a civil war?

That's the central question addressed by the War-torn Societies Project (WSP) — a unique international pilot program involving research and political action, which was launched five years ago with the support of various donor agencies, including the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canadian International Development Agency's Peacebuilding Fund. Several WSP officials and researchers shared their experiences at IDRC headquarters in October.

Origins

According to WSP Director, Matthias Stiefel, "the project grew out of the frustration of the international assistance community in dealing with war-torn societies." Although the Cold War was over, he explained, new civil wars were cropping up everywhere, each with their own set of economic and social problems. Meanwhile, many international actors involved in post-war reconstruction felt they were accomplishing little or, in some cases, making the situation worse.

In 1994, 60 representatives from the United Nations, donor countries, non-governmental organizations, and societies that either had been or were still at war met in Cartigny, Switzerland to discuss the problem. By the end of the discussions, the War-Torn Societies Project was born. Its main goal was to "help clarify policy options in societies that are emerging from major social and political conflict."

Range of actors

"The essential premise of WSP was that post-conflict rehabilitation typically involves a whole range of actors — internal and external — but that it is often hampered by these actors' lack of understanding of how some of the basic issues and priorities involved in rehabilitation interact," states a WSP report.

Stiefel and his colleagues decided to focus on four war-torn areas including Eritrea, Guatemala, Mozambique, and Northeast Somalia. "We had to be extremely flexible to local realities," he stressed. In each country, the WSP approach involved forming a Project Group comprising representatives of the main internal and external actors involved in post-conflict rebuilding, which would assume collective "ownership" of the project. The purpose of these groups was to discuss the "key social, economic, and political conditions and requirements ... in the post-conflict situation" and to select up to five strategic themes for further research and action.

Neutral forum

One of the WSP's most notable achievements was to provide a neutral forum for discussing politically charged issues and exchanging information, thus reducing levels of mistrust among traditionally opposing factions. According to Bernardo Arévalo de León, Special Advisor to WSP Guatemala's Project Director, the project succeeded in part because it had no prior agenda and because participants were open to what local people had to say.

Initially, most people were wary of the project's intentions, said Matt Bryden, WSP Programme Coordinator for Somalia. Previously, 18 months of military intervention and aid had failed to produce any enduring results, so most Somalians naturally regarded the WSP as yet another doomed international effort. They "felt they had been researched enough," he said. Despite this, the WSP team has started to bridge communication gaps between itself, international agencies, and, more importantly, local actors.

Crucial role

Local actors, in particular, have a crucial role to play in rebuilding war-torn societies, stressed various speakers. The people who have themselves lived through the war "are best placed to ensure the long-term sustainability of development."

Among its conclusions, the WSP does not recommend increased aid to societies battered by long-term civil conflict, but rather calls for improvements in how aid is delivered. "The quality of post-conflict assistance is more important than its quantity," states a WSP report.

Kelly Cryderman is a journalism/political science student at Carleton University.

Resource Persons:

Matthias Stiefel, Director, War-torn Societies Project, UNRISD, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland; Tel: (41-22) 788-8645; Fax: (41-22) 788-8321 or 740-0791

Necla Tschirgi, Senior Program Specialist, Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Programme, International Development Research Centre, PO Box 8500, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 3H9, Canada; Tel: (613) 236-6163, ext. 2318; E-mail: ntschirgi@idrc.ca

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