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This report looks at one of the most important yet contested political processes in South Sudan: the process of drafting a permanent constitution. It takes a social science perspective and focuses, in particular, on the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in the constitution-making process. The report argues that temporary constitutions negotiated in closed settings can increase conflict levels within a country.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Guri Storaas

This paper seeks to draw lessons from one of the untold stories about the Colombian armed conflict by analysing both the roots, the ideological foundations and the characteristics of the PRT, as well as its process of negotiation and transformation into a legal political actor. These lessons may be of high value in light of the ongoing peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP.

• Year2015
• Author(s)David Rampf

Working on fragile or conflict contexts is different from work in other projects. The consulting team of a GIZ programme and the individual consultants have to deal with security issues as well as with their own emotionality. National consultants’ personal histories are interlinked with specific conflict issues and actors. This emotionality and how consultants deal with it plays an important role when the consultants interact with the client systems and within their own consulting team. The consultants need to be aware of their own backgrounds and of how to keep the necessary distance to the clients. To deal with tensions and conflicts in the team and rather create a constructive and supportive working atmosphere, the GIZ project or programme manager and the team can strengthen their skills of self-reflection, communication, feedback, peer consulting, and other necessary technical and methodological skills.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Uta Giebel, Barbara Unger

The Peace Counts Learning Package was developed in the framework of the project Peace Counts. It is directed to multipliers of peace education who would like to work with stories of peacebuilders around the world.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Uli Jäger, Nadine Ritzi, Anne Romund

„Wenn wir die Zeit zurückdrehen könnten, was würden wir mit unserem heutigen Erfahrungsschatz anders machen?“ „In acht Jahren (2007-2015) wurden im Programm Cercapaz knapp 30 Millionen Euro umgesetzt. Welche Potenziale wurden genutzt und welche hätten wir noch besser nutzen können?“ Diese und ähnliche Fragen stellen sich Beteiligte des Programms Cercapaz in dessen Schlussphase. Auch wenn es das deutsch-kolumbianische Friedensprogramm Cercapaz in dieser Form nicht mehr geben wird, können jedoch ähnliche Vorhaben aus den Erfahrungen lernen, indem sie gute Ansätze übernehmen und Fehler vermeiden - und somit die Chance erhöhen, mit den ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln möglichst viel positive Veränderung zu erreichen. Die GIZ hat den Anspruch, eine lernende Organisation zu sein. Dieses Dokument soll einen Beitrag dazu leisten, indem es Impulse zur Reflexion und Diskussion gibt.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Uta Giebel, Barbara Unger

In order to take stock of this unique experience in Colombian history, this paper conducts an analysis of the actual degree of inclusivity in all four phases of the process: the preparation, negotiation, and the final modification and implementation of the new Constitution of 1991. This paper is part of the research project ‘Avoiding Conflict Relapse through Inclusive Political Settlements and State-building after Intra-State War’, and is one out of four papers written on the case of Colombia.

• Year2015
• Author(s)David Rampf, Diana Chavarro

Das Friedensprogramm Cercapaz mit einer Laufzeit von 8 Jahren und 3 Monaten (2007-2015) wurde in 3 Phasen und pro Phase mit einer jeweils veränderten Management- und Steuerungsstruktur durchgeführt. Das Programm ist damit einen Lernweg gegangen, der es wert ist, ihn nicht nur auf der Ebene der fachlichen Lernerfahrungen zu systematisieren, sondern auch bezüglich der Entwicklung seiner Management- und Steuerungsstruktur. Die Ergebnisse dieses Dokuments basieren auf Interviews, einschlägigen Programmdokumenten sowie Fachliteratur. Die Unterscheidung zwischen Management- und Steuerungsstruktur wird entsprechend der „Landkarte der Logiken“ der GIZ.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Elke Breckner, Uta Giebel

This paper provides insight into the role played by a part of the private sector which came to constitute a fairly unique elite in supporting the negotiation of a new political settlement in post-apartheid South Africa. To support this process, and to help engineer a political settlement that supported state-building in the interests of a peaceful political and smooth economic transformation, business steadily became both a conduit and part of negotiations, the political settlement that ensued, and the state-building efforts that followed the first democratic elections in 1994 and continue to this day. In the process, its role and position has evolved and a myriad of positive contributions have been made en route. However, persistent socio-economic deficits belie the full-bodied success of the transformation that both enabled the inclusivity of the process itself and promised prosperity and development as tangible outputs.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Nel Marais, Jo Davies

This paper examines how exclusions, in regards to enfranchisement and land ownership that were essential components of the political settlement following the second Boer war, led directly to the armed resistance of the 1960s. The mutually damaging stalemate between the power contenders and the white government of the day triggered a period of preliminary talks and formal negotiations which resulted in a political settlement, finally codified in 1996. It examines the primary actors – the African National Congress and the National Party, but notes that these parties or movements also had allies and contrary groups. This settlement has lasted at least 18 years, or 20 years, if the interim arrangements which resulted in a democratic election are identified as the turning point. There are no obvious reasons to suggest a re-emergence of politically motivated conflict, however, warning signs suggest that the political settlement is fraying.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Paul Graham

This paper analyses the ways in which the peace process, which put an end to the armed conflict in Nepal in 2006, has sought to address popular demands for inclusive democracy. It does so by reviewing the various cycles of negotiation, codification and materialisation of political reforms since the People’s Movement of 2006, the Comprehensive Peace Accord and the (first and second) Constituent Assemblies. It focuses in particular on one area of reform that has been widely debated among political and civil society sectors, namely, state restructuring through power decentralisation. Overall, the paper develops the arguments that although there is a widespread consensus that state institutions should be made more inclusive and representative of the makeup of society, the voices of power contenders, such as the Madhesi and Janajati communities, have failed to be adequately represented in constitutional debates.

• Year2015
• Author(s)Padma Prasad Khatiwada