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Reflecting on Peace Practice Project

Although Peter Woodrow is still working part-time for CDR, he is on leave to work as Co-Director of the Reflecting on Peace Practice Project, based at the Collaborative for Development Action in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The text below describes the RPP effort. Reflecting on Peace Practice-Utilization Phase

A Collaborative Learning Project of Agencies Involved in Working on Conflict
The Reflecting on Peace Practice Project (RPP) is an experience-based learning process that involves agencies whose programs attempt to prevent or mitigate violent conflict. Its purpose is to analyze experience at the individual program level across a broad range of agencies and contexts. Its goal is to improve the effectiveness of international efforts to help in "other people's conflicts."

Building on Earlier Phases of RPP Work

From 1999 though early 2003, RPP engaged over two hundred agencies and many individuals who work on conflict around the world in a collaborative effort to learn how to improve the effectiveness of peace practice. They volunteered time and effort to gather past experiences in attempting to move societies away from war and toward peace. By analyzing these experiences through case studies and consultations with practitioners, RPP was able to clarify why some things work, and others do not.

The findings from this three-year effort, published in Confronting War: Critical Lessons for Peace Practitioners, are available at www.cdainc.com/rpp. Lessons have been identified in three specific areas that, if applied, can improve effectiveness:

Factors critical to conflict analysis as the basis for effective peace programming;
Approaches to setting appropriate goals and planning programs that are closely linked to criteria for improving effectiveness; and
Systems for monitoring and assessing outcomes and impacts of peace efforts to determine (and improve) effectiveness.

RPP gained additional useful insights in relation to:

The relationship between the means used and the ends achieved in peace practice;
The importance of and ways to improve partnerships between "insiders" who work to resolve conflicts in the areas where they live and "outsiders" who cross borders to work with those who suffer from conflict;
Possible negative outcomes from peace work;
Specific programming approaches that are often used (dialogues and training); and
The impacts of donor policies and approaches on the effectiveness of peace practice.

Agencies and individuals involved in RPP consultations suggested that we should next enable peace practitioners to apply the findings and techniques developed, through some form of direct engagement in the field. In response, RPP has developed a two-pronged strategy that will disseminate and encourage broad adoption and utilization of RPP lessons by a number of peace agencies. The intent is, first, to improve the effectiveness of existing and ongoing peace programs through integration of the RPP learnings, and, second, to continue the process of gathering lessons to improve the impacts of subsequent peace practice.

The Approach

Field Work. RPP-Utilization will provide staff liaisons that will work directly with international and local NGOs engaged in peace practice in specific regions of the world. Initially, RPP will select four specific regions experiencing ongoing conflict. In each area, the liaisons will work in teams of two: one a local practitioner from the region, the other an RPP staff person or consultant. Wherever possible, both individuals will have been active in earlier phases of RPP.

The liaisons will help field staff in the four selected regions employ the lessons learned through RPP. The liaisons will present RPP ideas and lessons to NGO field staff, and then work with them to devise practical strategies appropriate in their areas and to integrate these lessons into their ongoing operations. Liaisons will visit each field site three to four times a year over a two-year period in order to help field staff monitor, assess, and develop strategies for improving program impacts in light of the RPP lessons.

RPP also recognizes that field workers and headquarters personnel from other regions will also be interested in learning about the RPP findings and practical applications. Therefore, staff are ready to provide a variety of workshops or consultations to people from other areas outside the four selected regions.

Consultations. Periodically, RPP will also organize consultations among the individuals and agencies involved in using the RPP approaches, as an opportunity to exchange experiences, compare notes, help each other solve problems, share good ideas and, in general, continue to collaborate to improve the effectiveness of their work.

Outcomes/Products:

As people gain experience utilizing the RPP findings, CDA will systematically collect and share this additional learning with collaborating agencies. This will be presented in ongoing, informal publications, and/or on the CDA web site, as mechanisms for exchanging experience. At the end of the two years, CDA will publish a variety of materials designed to help field practitioners in peace work to use RPP findings-in the form of case studies exploring the application of RPP concepts, training exercises, compendiums of lessons learned, and so forth