I n cre a s i n g i mpa ct Workers build extra shelter at the Nkamira transit centre in Rwanda. Photo: UNHCR/S. Modola/www.unhcr.de
genuine step forward. So we need to think outside the box and bring development and peacebuilding stakeholders together to a greater extent so that they can learn from each other and identify a common way forward. This is one of our prime motives for joining FriEnt, by the way.”
FriEnt-Aktivitäten FriEnt Activities
“Implementing the New Deal requires civil society participation”
Evaluation of EU support to conflict prevention and peacebuilding: new impetus for a European peace strategy? (December 2011)
The post-2015 development agenda can also draw inspiration from the New Deal in order to identify innovative ways forward and avoid past errors, as Lancedell Matthews from the New African Research and Development Agency (NARDA), a Liberian partner organisation working with Bread for the World – Protestant Development Service, explains:
A New Deal for fragile states: International engagement after Busan (January 2012)
Market in Itafaq, Afghanistan. Photo: Thomas Trutschel/photothek.net
FriEnt responds to current policy debates at the international level and involves international actors in the dialogue with FriEnt members. Two events have taken place with a focus on impacts and peacebuilding:
What role do civil society actors play in New Deal implementation? It is my thinking that civil society‘s role is to bring in fresh thoughts and experience to the various New Deal processes. We can put forward our ideas about the form that constructive relations between state and society can take, how to promote national ownership, monitoring and evaluation, and we can provide feedback for better decision making and planning. Of course, this means that first and foremost, our enabling space for action is safeguarded so that we can utilise our opportunities to contribute and perform our watchdog role. If this commitment, defined in the New Deal, is fulfilled, constructive engagement is possible. Does the New Deal offer starting points for integrating peace and security into the post-2015 development agenda? Yes, it does so in three respects. Firstly, the New Deal calls for an end to a narrow interpretation of development and addresses political dimensions. Secondly, it dispenses with the traditional donor-recipient relationship and focuses on the concept of partnership. And thirdly, it offers starting points for focusing on the causes, not just the symptoms, of conflict. Conflicts can be found in all societies, thus, a global integration of peace that promotes development and development that promotes peace is desirable and possible.
What does the New Deal mean to you? I regard the New Deal as an attempt to work together and find joint approaches to overcoming fragile statehood so as to achieve sustainable development and lasting peace. However, the challenges start with the word “joint”: I miss a real commitment of governments to transfer and transform government ownership of the New Deal to national ownership which broadens and deepen peoples‘ participation in New Deal processes. Clearly, I think a few government agencies are leaving both the ‚whole of government‘ and the rest of society behind. I also see a lack of any clear recognition that the New Deal is not just “business as usual”.
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