This study is being overseen by Dr. Meike Schleiff; text and map prepared by Meike in collaboration with Firew Kefyalew
Rationale for the Everyday Peace Indicators (EPI) study undertaken by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and built on by Future Generations University
One persistent challenge to
peacebuilding is the extent to which communities affected by conflict can
transform their circumstances. Many become passive recipients of prescriptive
interventions by external actors, or top-imposed conceptualizations and
interpretations. The bottom-up role has immediate benefit to day-to-day lives.
But how to measure peace (or, more helpfully, change whether it comes nearer or becomes more distant)?
Typically, methods used to study
peace yield complex, scholarly results that are not directly useful (or
sometimes even intended for) community use. Through development of ‘indicators
of peace,’ this project through local participation and local ownership, seeks
to produce sensitive local understanding of interventions in peacebuilding and
conflict transformation. The assertion here is that communities are best-placed
to measure and interpret their own peace.
What are indicators of peace?
These are signals that
communities develop through participatory action research on their perceptions
of their own circumstances/conflict – what peace actually entails to them.
As Roger Mac Ginty and Pamina
Firchow detailed in their recent article,[1]
“[Developing indicators of peace] is participatory action research that seeks
to find out people’s perceptions of their own conflict rather than impose
narratives on them. The research asks local people, through focus groups, to
develop their own set of indicators. …[T]he research questions are identified
and designed by local people. …The research is designed and administered by
local researchers and communities as a way of encouraging the identification of
issues that are relevant to communities at the neighborhood or village level.”
Examples of indicators identified in USIP's Everyday Peace Indicators project from multiple countries around the world include:
- Children are in school without disruption by rebels
- Being able to hold social events without police disruption
- How many dogs are barking at night
- Roads and other key infrastructure get repaired
- Women feel safe walking in the streets
- Able to access primary health care center
Why is Future Generations University interested in EPI?
Peacebuilding is an area that the
graduate school has been engaged in for a number of years. There is in-house
research and academic work that the graduate school wants to build on.
Development of indicators for peace is consistent with the community change
ideals that the graduate school has been teaching. Moreover, development of
indicators of peace is in line with what is taught and practiced in SEED-SCALE.
The graduate school is keen to pursue a research agenda in developing
indicators of peace, an effort that will be augmented by the partnership it has
with USIP.
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| Photo caption: This map shows the 12 country sites (listed below) that are included in the current study. |
This a very exciting project that currently has twelve
country sites—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guyana, Namibia, Nepal,
Nigeria, Somaliland, South Sudan, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe—where study implementers
are alumni and current MA students. In addition to USIP’s series of focus group
discussions to determine community perspectives on peace indicators, we have
added a series of key informant interviews with regional/country experts on
peacebuilding in each country in order to triangulate community- and expert-identified
indicators with top-down global and regional indices and priorities. The study
is in full swing now, and we will complete the first phase of indicator
identification, verification, and review of potential uses by the end of June
2017. From there, we are seeking additional funding and avenues to further this
work—in the field of peacebuilding as well as across other sectors in our institutional research strategy.
[1] “Everyday Peace Indicators: Capturing Local
Voices Through Surveys” in Shared Space:
A research journal on peace, conflict and community relations in Northern
Ireland. No date.
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