Development Aid Architecture and the Conditions for Peacebuilding and Human Rights: Does the Framework Fit the Purpose?

Abstract

The number of aid-receiving countries that are conflict-affected is significant; however, results of international efforts to promote both development and peacebuilding are mixed. While international aid policy recognizes that conflict-affected areas present unique characteristics and that a different approach to development programming is needed in such contexts, donors and their in-country partners are hard pressed to reconcile institutional and programmatic requirements with what is needed to create conducive conditions for peacebuilding and human rights initiatives at local level. This policy note considers this gap in development thinking and practice by discussing challenges and opportunities in supporting peace and human rights in conflict-affected countries. In doing so, it elucidates pertinent aspects of the institutional architecture of aid bureaucracies, the behavioural responses of their functionaries, and the mode of engagement needed in addressing the unique needs of conflict-affected areas. We suggest that a radical rethinking of the framework for supporting collaboration and programming on peacebuilding and human rights is needed. The policy note argues that the emphasis of the liberal peace critique on the normative and ideational framework as the main challenge to creating a conducive space for peacebuilding does not match practical reality. Instead, we need to look to the institutional framework and practices embedded in development aid architecture to identify and understand the challenges in support of and collaboration on peacebuilding and human rights. In addition, we suggest that inspiration for transforming the current framework and practices can be drawn from thinking in the fields of human rights and peacebuilding on indignity, inequality, power imbalance, and polarization.