Situating Workable Response continues...

Local peace-building has had a range of positive, often interconnected outcomes: increased resolution of disputes; low levels of violence, including domestic violence; greater community cohesion;

stronger resilience to external threats and the expansion of development

activity which could help the rehabilitation and inclusion of the returnees

in the national mainstream. Given that the existing community peace-building programme has such a significant impact on peace and development, yet benefits only a fraction of the population, there is a powerful case for greater donor support for NGOs engaged in peace-building, as well as national development strategy. To enhance the capability of the community based institutions to resolve these problems,

it is an essential and complementary part of a wider strategy of peace-

building to promote better governance; rural development; and the professionalisation of police and security forces at the provincial and grass root levels.

There has been a proliferation of initiatives, with thousands of projects run by UN agencies, Provincial Reconstruction Teams and NGOs but they are often working at cross-purposes. In the newly-

constrained security environment, these initiatives have often been

brought to a stand-still. As a result, many now realize that the

reconstruction “system” has reached a log-jam and can’t deliver on its

intended outcomes. During a 2007 survey, Afghans across the country,

rural and urban, expressed the feeling of being marginalized during the

reconstruction process.

Hence it is necessary that domestically-driven processes can be designed to work in Afghanistan and similar contexts, starting with the attributes of such an approach of “Afghanization”; and

understand why some programmes worked and others did not in the

2001-08 period. Therefore, the mission of the grassroots approach should

be to implement multi-sector rehabilitation and development projects

which are designed to foster self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

To be continued...