Search Results

This Primer provides guidance for DDR practitioners, peacebuilding stakeholders, and international partners on how to sequence DDR efforts alongside political transformation in ways that align and ideally strengthen one another. Using insights from cases like Nepal, Liberia, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, and Colombia, it examines how different sequencing choices affect the relationship between security and political inclusion in post-conflict settings. The document presents conceptual frameworks, comparative case examples and practical principles to help develop more coordinated and context-sensitive strategies.

• Year 2025

The Abyan governorate in southern Yemen faces growing environmental pressures that have become key drivers of local conflict. Water scarcity, land degradation and extreme weather events are intensifying social tensions in a region already affected by war and weak governance. This study examines how environmental stressors contribute to disputes and connect to displacement, livelihood loss and declining social cohesion. It also highlights the roles of tribal customs, religious authorities, local governance and community initiatives in mediating resource-related conflicts and identifies opportunities for local stakeholders and international donors to strengthen environmental management and support conflict-mediation efforts in Abyan.

• Year 2025
• Author(s) Summer Nasser

تواجه محافظة أبين في جنوب اليمن ضغوطًا بيئية متزايدة أصبحت من المحرّكات الأساسية للصراع المحلي. فندرة المياه وتدهور الأراضي والظواهر المناخية المتطرفة تؤدي إلى تفاقم التوترات الاجتماعية في منطقة متأثرة أصلًا بالحرب وضعف الحوكمة. وتبحث هذه الدراسة في كيفية مساهمة الضغوط البيئية في تأجيج النزاعات وارتباطها بالنزوح وفقدان سبل العيش وتراجع التماسك الاجتماعي. كما تبرز الدراسة أدوار الأعراف القبلية والسلطات الدينية والحكم المحلي والمبادرات المجتمعية في التوسط في النزاعات المرتبطة بالموارد، وتحدّد فرصًا لأصحاب المصلحة المحليين والجهات المانحة الدولية لتعزيز إدارة البيئة ودعم جهود الوساطة في النزاعات في أبين.

• Year 2025
• Author(s) Summer Nasser

How can women’s roles in mediation be truly meaningful? Read why peace processes must be locally grounded and attentive to gender-specific realities.

• blog post 17 Dec 2025
• Author(s) Carla Schraml

From dispute to shared responsibility, community dialogues are helping Iraqi villages manage water scarcity and build trust for a more resilient future.

• Impact

This report offers practical guidance for mediators and peace support actors working in today’s complex and evolving conflict environments. Drawing on case-based insights, it examines how peace processes can support the transition of non-state armed groups from armed struggle to peaceful political participation. It situates these efforts within a changing global context marked by conflict fragmentation that challenge established assumptions about peacemaking. The report argues that political inclusion remains essential for sustainable peace if approaches are adapted to context-specific realities. It concludes with concrete recommendations and tools to help practitioners navigate contemporary challenges and support inclusive conflict transformation.

• Year 2025
• Author(s) Véronique Dudouet, Johanna-Maria Hülzer, Gyda Sindre, Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs, Jacqui Cho

Vulnerability rarely reflects identity. It reflects context. This blog explores why acknowledging that distinction matters for language, analysis and peace practice.

• blog post 14 Jan 2026
• Author(s) Jana Sleem

Senior Accountant, Accounting

This policy report explores how cultural blind spots and unexamined assumptions shape international approaches to conflict transformation in Niger and the wider Sahel. Drawing on in-depth interviews with customary authorities, women mediators, youth leaders, former rebels, local researchers and civil society actors, it highlights how dominant Western frameworks often misread local peace dynamics and obscure the ways conflict is actually managed and transformed on the ground.

• Year 2026
• Author(s) Antje Herrberg

Ce rapport analyse la manière dont les angles morts culturels façonnent l’engagement international en matière de transformation des conflits au Niger et dans le Sahel. S’appuyant sur des entretiens approfondis menés avec des autorités coutumières, des médiatrices, des leaders de jeunesse, d’anciens rebelles, des chercheurs locaux et des acteurs de la société civile, il examine les présupposés épistémiques et les cadres occidentaux linéaires qui occultent souvent les logiques locales de la paix.

• Year 2026
• Author(s) Antje Herrberg