Collaboration with el Banco de Buenas Prácticas para Superar el Conflicto (BPSC)

Since January 2007, Insight on Conflict (IonC) has been collaborating with el Banco de Buenas Prácticas para Superar el Conflicto (BPSC) in Colombia to maximise both organisations' capacity to assist with peacebuilding efforts.

Overview

BPSC work in Colombia, accumulating peacebuilding and conflict resolution knowledge and making it publicly accessible to all those who are trying to help the country overcome its conflict. In a similar way to IonC, BPSC publicises examples of best practices in conflict resolution as a guide for state agencies, international donors, NGOs and cooperation agencies. IonC and BPSC are collaborating to share their knowledge of peacebuilding with a much wider audience than they could reach independently. Like IonC, BPP does not run initiatives but publicises them, and they are grouped according to region.

Geographical Area of Operation

IonC and BPSC are currently collaborating on five regions of Colombia - Antioquia, Cauca, Montes de Maria, Santander and Valle del Cauca - with plans to steadily expand this area of focus.

Best Practice

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (Generalitat de Catalunya) all firmly believe that concrete examples of good practice can teach how peace is possible in Colombia and elsewhere. They have come together to support BPSC's efforts to identify, organise, analyse and publicise concrete experiences that teach us about how is possible to overcome the Colombian armed conflict.

These experiences are:

• Born from the creative imagination that overcomes fury, hate and fear;
• Sustained by the pragmatism and the necessity of reproducing life while confronting violence, human suffering and disenchantment; and are
• Encouraged by those who trust in the human capacity to understand and confront the roots, dynamics and incentives that originate and escalate armed conflict in Colombia as elsewhere, and by those who are willing to participate in conflict resolution processes.

In a similar way to IonC, BPSC searches for actions, projects, programmes or processes that in various fashions dissuade from the violent option, reduce the impact of violence while war is lasting and articulate conditions for a firm, durable and sustainable peace.

These are initiatives, for instance, that:

• Take care of people;
• Humanise the war;
• Attend to the victims;
• Unmake the armies;
• Prevent recruitment;
• Un-fund the war;
• Take narcotics out of the conflict;
• Empower local governance capacity for peace;
• Handle local conflicts over land, labour and economics;
• Rediscover politics as an alternative to violence;
• Encourage and develop pacts for peace;
• Provide education for peace and coexistence; and
• Promote media on peace and coexistence.

The BPSC National Database

Similarly to the IonC showcase, BPSC collects all these experiences and examples of good peace-building practice on its Best Practice Database. Permanently and interactively, the database:

• Makes this information fully accessible (except those experiences that should be kept confidential);
• Promotes social learning and upholds the processes as an expression of solidarity amidst the conflict;
• Promotes national and international recognition of the communities, leaderships, social movements, public authorities and other protagonists of the good practices;
• Stimulates national and international support for peace-building; and
• Provides a focal and meeting point for the interchanging and transfer of good peace-building practice.