In the sixth briefing in CIC's series on prevention, we take stock after the July 2019 High-level Political Forum on the instrumental role that development initiatives can play in conflict prevention. As highlighted in the 2011 World Development Report and the 2018 UN–World Bank Pathways for Peace report, often root causes are related to lack of equitable access to economic opportunities, or a combination of political and economic inequalities that fuel grievances. Some risk factors may therefore need to be addressed with development tools. Drawing on field research and on member state reporting at the recent High-level Political Forum, this briefing highlights development measures countries have taken to support prevention, and highlights ways the UN system can better assist these efforts.
In this policy briefing, our fifth in our series on prevention at the UN, we draw on examples from Côte d’Ivoire and Timor-Leste to illustrate how countries have developed integrated actions on prevention that cut across sectors, including security, development, and human rights. We then highlight options for the UN to better support these strategies through cross-pillar approaches and identify practical ways forward for governments implementing prevention approaches.
In discussions on the prevention agenda at the United Nations, member states express concerns about potential infringement on their sovereignty. This briefing, our fourth in our series on prevention at the United Nations, looks at the way ECOWAS has addressed similar sensitivities with its member states to become a symbol of successful conflict prevention.
Inequality and exclusion are among the most pressing political issues of our age. They are on the rise and the anger felt by citizens towards elites perceived to be out-of-touch constitutes a potent political force. Policy-makers and the public are clamoring for a set of policy options that can arrest and reverse this trend.
This challenge paper is an output for the Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion, an initiative of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, and outlines ideas for solutions to inequality and exclusion that are strongly grounded in analysis.
Data, tech, and analytics are already transforming work to promote peace and security, and practitioners have been expanding their toolkits to take advantage of the revolution in information gathering, data analytics, ICTs, and machine learning. In an important step towards gathering a community of cross-sectoral practitioners around this issue, on March 20 more than 70 participants from around the world attended the “Data for Peace and Security” workshop in New York City. Read on for the workshop summary and the recommendations that came from the meeting.
