Convening Experts to Apply Inclusive Peacebuilding Experience to Afghanistan (November 2010)

Afghanistan is at a potential turning point as the international community and Afghan government seek to negotiate peace with extremist elements while pursuing a strong statebuilding initiative. Both efforts suffer from a lack of transparency and public support; in part, this is because a broad enough range of stakeholders is not being adequately consulted or involved in deliberations.

On November 5, Inclusive Security and The Institute for State Effectiveness convened a meeting of experts to explore how to build an inclusive peace in Afghanistan.

More than a dozen experts from around the world gathered in Washington, DC to examine global experiences integrating a wide range of stakeholders in building peace and to assess the applicability of those experiences to Afghanistan today. Experts included those knowledgable about a wide variety of participatory peace processes, including Andy Carl of Conciliation Resources and Dr. Anthony Wanis-St. John of American University, and those with regional expertise in Afghanistan and Pakistan, such as Michael Semple of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Clare Lockhart of the Institute for State Effectiveness.

The discussion yielded best practices for fostering broader buy-in and greater inclusivity in peacebuilding, and recommendations for advancing peace negotiations and post-conflict statebuilding in Afghanistan. Lessons learned included the need for a combination of top-down and bottom-up reconciliation efforts that cultivate local ownership by connecting civil society to those actors involved in formal Track 1 peace negotiations. The importance of mapping and understanding the wide range of stakeholder groups in any given conflict to better understand patterns of political exclusion was highlighted—acknowledging that this information can be leveraged to bring about a more inclusive peace.

The meeting ended with consensus that more participatory peacebuilding is urgently needed to complement Afghan-led reintegration and reconciliation efforts. The group brainstormed potential solutions and needs in the areas of conflict analysis, participatory process formation, grievance resolution, and regional conflict resolution. These initial ideas will form the basis of future advocacy by Inclusive Security and others to ensure a more inclusive, sustainable peace in Afghanistan.

For more information on this meeting or Inclusive Security's work in Afghanistan, please contact Michelle Barsa.