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How to Choose a Local Partner.
“All external support to a country recovering from conflict needs to be given in the knowledge that those local people who want to rebuild their country and keep it peaceful face enormous pressures. There are risks to their own lives and those of their loved ones and local people are often dealing with loss on a scale we can’t quite come to grips with.”
One of the common reasons given by ‘outsiders’ for not forming equal partnerships with local people is the difficulty of knowing who to work with.
It is a collection of interviews with people who’ve gone through the process, or observed others doing so and is intended to show how people have found the right partners and the way that working with these partners enables a wholly different kind of peacebuilding to develop.
Foreword – Joan Link
“Seek to work with your local partners as collaborators, on an equal footing, and with humility.” Joan Link, Former Head of Confict Issues Group, FCO, UK.
Ben Hoffman on Guinea-Bissau
Ben Hoffman from the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation on the work of the International Peace and Prosperity Project in Guinea-Bissau
Carolyn Hayman on Sudan
Carolyn Hayman OBE, Chief Executive of Peace Direct speaks of her experience working with the Collaborative for Peace in Sudan
Lt Col Stuart Gordon On Afghanistan
Lt Col Stuart Gordon on the logic of channelling development funds through local structures.
Squadron Leader Gordon Summers On Afghanistan
Squadron Leader Gordon Summers describes the challenges of engaging local civil society in the midst of hot conflict
Alla Skvortova on Moldova
Alla Skvortova, Head of Moldova Country Office, DfID on building links between conflicting parties
Maud Roure On Burundi
Maud Roure on the lessons Interpeace learnt finding a partner in Burundi
Roxanne Myers on Guyana
Roxanne Myers describes how using local civil society proved more effective than a top down approach in Guyana
Lidja Skaro on Bosnia-Herzegovina
Lidja Skaro of the International Commission on Missing Persons talks of the importance of involving local family associations in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Serena Rix on Nepal
Serena Rix of Search for Common Ground explains the importance of finding partners with a similar mission and goals
These interviews originally appeared in a Peace Direct publication called ‘How to Choose a Dance Partner’, released in June 2009 and focuses on the experiences of ‘outsiders’ in forming partnerships with local peacebuilding organisations. Future publications will look at other aspects of peacebuilding.
