3P Moves to the Alliance for Peacebuilding

We are delighted to announce that, as of July, 3P Human Security has moved from Eastern Mennonite University to become a program of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, in Washington DC.

3P Human Security grew out of initial responses to 9/11 at Eastern Mennonite University by faculty, staff and students around the world who wanted to bring the insights of conflict analysis and peacebuilding to the world of security policymaking.

As our program has grown, we have partnered with a wide range of think tanks and organizations in Washington, DC - and the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) has been our closest partner in reaching out to the U.S. government to offer a peacebuilding point of view on current security challenges.

We look forward to working closely with the AfP team to continue our research, educational programs, multi-stakeholder roundtable dialogues, and outreach efforts in Washington. This move enables 3P to work more organically with a larger community of peacebuilding organizations, and helps strengthen the bridges we are trying to build between civil society voices and the policy making process in Washington, and around the world. We look forward to building on our past work together, and to creating new, dynamic programs in the future! 

Warm Regards,

Lisa Schirch, 3P Human Security Director

Melanie Greenberg, Alliance for Peacebuilding President

Making Development more Effective in Conflict-Affected Countries

The New Deal:

3P and the Alliance for Peacebuilding are working with international coalitions to help ensure countries implement reforms in international development aid strategies based on the New Deal for Engagementin Fragile States. In the U.S., 3P and AfP helped form a new Subgroup on Conflict-Affected and Fragile States, part of InterAction's larger Aid Effectiveness Working Group operating since 2009. The Subgroup brings together U.S.-based civil society experts on the peacebuilding-development nexus to advise USAID as it seeks to implement changes in the way it approaches development in conflict-affected contexts, including one of the New Deal 'pilot projects' launched by Liberia, the U.S., and Sweden. 3P and AfP helped convene several meetings and dialogue for the Subgroup this summer to advance the development effectiveness agenda.

The role of global civil society:

Internationally, global civil society stakeholders on this issue organized themselves into a 'Core Group' of Southern and Northern peacebuilding practitioner and policy organizations to relate with the official inter-governmental body of donor and host nations implementing the New Deal, called the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS). 3P and AfP are active members of the civil society Core Group, working hard to make sure governments implement the peacebuilding approaches mandated by the New Deal in an inclusive way that empowers conflict-affected societies to chart their own course out of fragility.

The post-2015 development agenda:

We are also working to make peacebuilding principles part of the foundation of the new global development agenda that will replace the Millenium Development Goals when they expire in 2015. 3P and AfP are currently participating in the international Core Group's effort to draft position papers and plan outreach events aimed at increasing the political momentum for peacebuilding principles to be featured in the post-2015 framework.

3P Offers Workshop for Cote d'Ivoire Delegation

In August, 3P Program Manager John Filson welcomed a judge, an artist, a civil society activist, and a journalist from Cote d'Ivoire who were visiting the United States to learn more about U.S. perspectives on and approaches to conflict resolution and reconciliation, both in international affairs and also in grassroots communities in the U.S. The Institute of International Education through the State Department's International Visitors Leadership Program hosted the delegation.

John offered a seminar for the delegates about the theories of change that guide 3P's policy work in Washington bringing the voices and analyses of local civil society stakeholders in settings of conflict around the world into the U.S. policy-making system. John also discussed some of the ways the perspectives on peacebuilding and human security of U.S. non-governmental actors differ from the models and approaches to prevention and security used by U.S. government agencies. The delegates shared their own perspectives on the nature and methods of peacebuilding in Cote d'Ivoire and the West African region, and how they relate to Western paradigms. 

New Report Comparing Human Security Paradigms

Human Security Roundtable

In May, 2012, 3P co-sponsored a special roundtable meeting that brought together senior representatives from the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union, the US Department of State, USAID, Defense Department, NGOs, academics, and grantmakers to discuss the various ways these institutions are defining and operationalizing concepts like Human Security, Protection of Civilians, Citizen Security, and others.

3P Director Lisa Schirch compiled a new report based on the May meeting titled, “From Protection of Civilians to Human Security: Comparing and Contrasting Principles, Distinctions, and Institutionalization.” The report summarizes how key institutions and experts are defining and operationalizing these concepts to identify important distinctions in how they are understood and used. Interpretations and expectations of roles these various institutions play are in conflict in some cases. By describing and mapping institutional approaches and definitions, the report aims to provide information that will enable enable problem‐solving and further dialogue to clarify and
reduce tensions between approaches.

The report is structured as follows:

1. Summary Points of Agreement and Difference

2. Description of Key Principles

3. Comparing Institutional Principles

4. Institutional Responses to “Protection of Civilians”–UN, US agencies, NGOs

5. Institutional Responses to “Civilian Security” – US State Department

6. Institutional Responses to “Citizen Security” – World Bank

7. Institutional Responses to “Human Security” – UN, European Union, GPPAC

8. Participants in the Human Security Roundtable and Speaker bios

To read the full report, please click here

3P plans to continue facilitating this important dialogue and widen the circle of stakeholders. Participants may convene for a second roundtable later in the Fall to follow-up on issues raised and deepen the discussion.