Vingt ans de conflit ont détruit le tissu social en Casamance. Le seul mode de rétablir la sécurité et d’éradiquer la famine dans une zone qui fut considérée autrefois comme le grenier du Sénégal c’est de demander aux agricultrices, dit Tabara Ndiaye
Twenty years of conflict has destroyed the social fabric of Casamance. The only way to re-instate security and eradicate famine in an area once known as the bread-basket of Senegal is to ask the women farmers, says Tabara Ndiaye
Focused on the challenges of declining funds and public skepticism at home, development organisations tend to pay more attention to ´what works´ to convince donors and journalists, rather than finding out first what resonates with the people they mean to help. What kind of success is a film which
The Fukushima nuclear disaster was both avoidable and inevitable. Nuclear technologies have too many inherent risks with widespread consequences to be a sensible choice for energy production, argues Rebecca Johnson
The dominant interventionist approach to peace and security in Africa by-passes the hard work of creating domestic political consensus and instead imposes models of government favoured by western powers. The emergent African methodology offers a chance to develop locally-rooted solutions too often
Ultimately, an emphasis on the rule of law in peacebuilding interventions reflects a preoccupation with the effects, rather than the causes, of conflict. But calls for a more expansive notion of justice – which gives greater attention to distributive justice – may be gaining momentum.
Through an account of capoeira, the Brazilian dance-fight-game, we uncover two simultaneous stories of security: first, the gradual monopolisation of violence by the state; second, a somatic, lyrical representation of a history of violence, oppression and liberation.
Peacebuilding and development can no longer be thought of in terms of what was always an over-simplified polarisation between the powerful stability of the giver and the weak turbulence of the beneficiary. It was always wrong to see the world that way; now it’s impossible.
Unlike perpetrators, victims of wartime rape and sexual violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not receive much attention in the media, not only due to social ostracism but also lack of a coherent strategy and resources to address their needs.
Storytelling, in itself, will neither eliminate sexual violence nor entirely heal PTSD. But it can help shift the conversation to a narrative that avoids shaming survivors, carving out a space for understanding.
Women’s groups such as Women in Black have long led the way in challenging the mindsets and structures of patriarchal power and militarism, but men must recognise that they have the primary responsibility to make the changes, says Rebecca Johnson
"Violence can be prevented. This is not an article of faith, but a statement based on evidence" (WHO 2002). Scilla Elworthy calls for a strategy based on the clear evidence of what is working in scattered pockets around the world, with the creation of 'Infrastructures for Peace' at its core.
