International Understanding and Cooperation

Peace

What creates sustainable peace?

The Situation

War and armed conflict affect the lives of some two billion people worldwide and impede the positive development of entire countries and regions. Even societies that no longer face violent conflicts often have to deal with their aftermath for decades to come. In around 60 percent of all civil wars, violence escalates again within an average of just seven years after a peace agreement.

The Goal

We support societies affected by violent conflicts in their transformation toward sustainable peace. Local stakeholders who are highly familiar with the conflict and the region design their peace processes. Peace is more than just the absence of violence: It also involves the strengthening of structures and institutions that characterize peaceful societies.

Our Strategy

Transforming conflict into sustainable peace requires time and approaches on all levels of society. Therefore, we provide medium- to long-term support in selected regions to people and organizations directly affected by conflict. Together with regional stakeholders, we set up initiatives that shape inclusive peace processes and implement projects locally. The ongoing development and implementation of local peace approaches require collective efforts. Hence, we promote exchange among academics and practitioners globally while contributing findings of our work to peacebuilding debates and activities. Furthermore, we take the relevance of climate change, migration, and inequality into consideration.

The support we offer

Regional: Local Efforts of Peacebuilding

We engage in regions in which we can contribute to sustainable peace and where we can positively impact local peacebuilding efforts. As part of these activities, we are launching “locally led peace initiatives” (LLPIs) in the Western Balkans and the Sahel. Furthermore, we support local peace efforts in the Middle East.

LLPI Western Balkans

The foundation will set up a locally-led peace initiatives (LLPI) in the Western Balkans.

The Western Balkans encompass the countries of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Following the collapse of communism and the wars of the 1990s, the democratic and state consolidation of these countries is ongoing. The aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia and long-running disputes over claims to power, along with ethnic and national affiliations, continue to influence the region. Following significant involvement in the Western Balkans, the international community and donors have increasingly withdrawn in recent years – even though the region is currently experiencing a critical phase amidst the clash of nationalism and growing ethno-nationalist tensions.

LLPI Sahel

In Sahel, the foundation will set up a locally-led peace initiatives (LLPI).

In the narrower sense, the Sahel comprises the West African countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Geographically speaking, it includes additional countries, such as parts of Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sudan. The region has been caught in a spiral of violence since 2012. In spite of national and international interventions, the conflicts have intensified in recent years in the face of weak state structures and increasing disputes over scarce resources. Terrorists and militias exploit centuries-old regional conflicts, such as those between farmers and pastoralists. This humanitarian disaster is affecting 24 million people. Against the backdrop of these deeply rooted conflicts, only locally-led initiatives owned by the affected themselves can have sustainable impact.

Local efforts Middle East

The Foundation will follow developments in this region by way of thematically focused involvement and support of individual locally led projects.

The Middle East region refers to the countries of the Levant (Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria), the Arabian Peninsula (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Araba, UAE, Yemen), Iran, Iraq and, depending on the context, also includes Afghanistan, Egypt, and Turkey. Home to around a quarter of a billion people, the region has been the scene of many conflicts with regional and global implications for decades.

Global: Promoting innovation in international peacebuilding

We are convinced of the impact and growing importance of local approaches for sustainable peace and, as such, support peace actors and their local efforts. At the global level, we promote the exchange of knowledge and experience to enable innovation and continuous development of the peacebuilding field.

Project: “Refining and Developing IFIT's Brain Trust Model” (IFIT)

The Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) establishes and coordinates country-specific expert committees (Brain Trusts) with the aim of preventing violence and developing ideas for peace processes. This approach, based on wide regard for the needs of those affected by conflicts, has proven successful in Africa, Latin America, and the MENA region. With the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, IFIT wants to develop its brain trust model further and meet growing demand. Findings and experiences from this project help us to adjust our strategy continuously.

Project: “Principles for Peace” (Interpeace)

Interpeace has been an established actor in the realm of international peacebuilding for more than 25 years. The global “Principles for Peace” initiative aims to open a participatory process and establish a new normative framework and standard to guide inclusive and effective peace processes. The project aims to establish these principles internationally and enable countries to shape peace processes in a more inclusive way. Through its support of Interpeace, the Robert Bosch Stiftung is contributing to further enhance the peacebuilding field.