Rwanda, 7 – 8 July 2015: The Hague Institute for Global Justice and its partner organizations INES-Ruhengeri, PACCI, and UNU-MERIT, and a range of stakeholders and experts completed the first workshop for the project, “Employment for Stability - Does Opportunity Reduce Instability? A Meta-Analysis of Skills and Employment Interventions in LMICs”. Funded by the Netherlands Research Council (NWO), this two-year project will critically explore the relationship between employment, training and stability in low- and middle-income countries.

Workshop hosts, Rector Fr. Fabien Hagenimana and Mr. Gonzalves Nshimiyimana from INES-Ruhengeri, opened the event. The sessions, which were led by the project team, focused on the key conceptual, methodological and operational aspects of employment and training in unstable contexts, with Rwanda as one of the main country studies for discussion.

Key aspects and participants
The consultative workshop aimed to present the key aspects of the research project to a selection of business leaders, entrepreneurs, policy experts, practitioners and academics from the region. Participants included the Rwandan Ministry of Youth, Information, Communication and Technology, Integrated Polytechnic Regional Center Kigali, the University of Yaoundé II Cameroon, the Organisation for Social Sciences Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, SPARK Rwanda, and Women for Women International.

Research project
The research project overall will seek to improve understanding of how economic variables and stability are interrelated and how aid interventions may improve both development and stability, which are key knowledge gaps at present. The team will assess the impacts of two types of employment intervention – those focusing on job creation and those boosting employment training – on stability and on economic outcomes and opportunities in ten country studies in Africa and the Middle East.

The process from now
The Rwanda workshop was the first of several opportunities within the project for critical engagement and feedback. Over the next 18 months, the project team will organize a series of workshops in communities that have been recipients of employment interventions, a private-sector-supported ‘study tour’ with entrepreneurs and business leaders, among other consultations. Such participatory methods will enable the team to evaluate and disseminate findings, correlate results with real-life experiences, tailor research to the needs of practitioners and impact on processes of capacity building and policy formulation. The project’s findings will also be published in working papers and academic journals. For further information, please contact Ms Fabienne Smith.

The Employment for Stability project is an important part of The Hague Institute’s broader strategic work in this field that includes policy-oriented research and expert events on Global Business, Labor, and Economic Governance and human trafficking by the Global Governance and Rule of Law Programs.

WOTRO granted five projects in the ‘Open call for evidence-based policy advice and tools’ within the Applied Research Fund of the research program Security & Rule of Law in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings. This Open call aims to (develop tools that) provide new evidence-based insights in the underlying assumptions, feasibility and/or impact of policies on, or approaches for security and rule of law in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAS) and unlock the knowledge for practitioners organizations.

The following projects will receive funding:

• The Justice Box - a tool for evidence-based policy and legal empowerment in Mali | The main applicant is Dr S. Muller (The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law, the Netherlands). The co-applicant is Dr I. Koreissi (Association DEME-SO, Mali). This project aims to co-design an evidence-based justice tool (Justice Boxes). This Justice Box is an interactive dashboard which allows users to link various types of justice data. It will enable to monitor justice from people's perspective and hold justice providers accountable. It will also assist donors in targeting their interventions and integrating their strategies.
• When will transitional justice join the transitional decade in Afghanistan? | The main applicant is Dr C.E. Echavez (Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, Afghanistan). The co-applicant is Mrs L. Linke (The Liaison Office, Afghanistan). The aim of this project is to facilitate inclusion of community-level perceptions and expectations of transitional justice into a framework for a successful peace process. This project will provide a longitudinal view on the community perceptions and possible changes that might have happened in past years and will have a strong Afghan led character. Also, the project will directly approach practitioners by providing practical tools to incorporate transitional justice activities in their programming. And the proposed action will include positive deviance research in its research methodology. In the meantime, the project will spread its gained evidence-based knowledge, by conducting a series of training workshops on the usage of conflict sensitive tools, through clear policy recommendations and by making the findings easily accessible.
• Towards inclusive security governance of the Tunisian-Libyan border: Developing evidence-based approaches to enhancing border security in Tunisia | The main applicant is Dr O.L. Lamloum (International Alert, Tunisia). The co-applicants are Dr F. Rekik (Université de Sfax, Tunisia) and Mr A. Talbi (The Tunisian Forum of Social and Economic Rights (TFSER), Tunisia). Despite the transition from authoritarian regime, political violence and unrest is increasing and there is growing concern around insecurity along Tunisian borders. Empirical evidence is required to improve the ability of policy-makers to understand and address the drivers and underlying causes of Tunisia's border governance and security problems. This project will provide new insights and evidence through participatory research and policy advice, and link decision makers with existing evidence from community engagement approaches to border security.
• The 2013 National Dialogue Conference (NDC) in Yemen: Why did it fail to prevent conflict? | The main applicant is Dr M.A.A. Elayah (Radboud University, the Netherlands). The co-applicant is Dr B. AbuOsba (Awam Foundation for Development & Culture (AFDC), Yemen). This project aims at a meta-analysis ('systematic review') of a comprehensive set of NDC evaluations, and an elicitation among local civil society actors (including women's rights organisations) about their perspective on the NDC. The results will be triangulated and synthesized in a quick reference for international donors when pushing for national dialogues in the Arab region (or elsewhere). A policy brief will be written to assist in formulating an adequate strategic response once participatory spaces reopen.
• Codifying water rights in contested basins of Afghanistan | The main applicant is Dr A. Mehari Haile (UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands). The co-applicants are Dr K. Qayoum (Kabul University, Afghanistan) and Dr F.W.M. van Steenbergen (Meta Meta, the Netherlands). This research aims at a mitigation of water related conflicts to contribute to larger general security and future agricultural development in Afghanistan. It will investigate the current systems of water rights, the way that are they settled and codified, while paying special attention to spate irrigation systems that make use of short term floods as the prime source of water in Nimroz, Afghanistan. From this, a guidance document for codifying water rights and distribution rules shall be created to operationalise the Water Law. The following activities will be carried out; a reconnaissance survey, field studies and stakeholder workshops.

Submit a proposal?

New applications for the Open call for evidence-based policy advice and tools can be submitted for the assessment round on 6 November 2015.These are also the deadlines for the Call for Evidence-Informed Ideas within the Applied Research Fund.Deadline for a preliminary proposal for the Stategic Research Fund is 18 August 2015.

 For more information about the research program, please continue to the website of WOTRO.

On July 8 2015, the Platform hosted an informal follow-up discussion to the February 24th event ‘Towards a Comprehensive Approach: Civil Society and Security Sector Perspectives on Dutch Missions’, convened by GPPAC and Cordaid. A small group drawn from the participants of the latter event met to share reflections on the February event, to provide updates on related activities and to discuss possible ways forward. Updates discussed included the Common Effort, Leidraad geïntegreerde benadering  and Understand to Prevent.

Key points that came out of the discussion reflected the need to focus more on conflict prevention, and on early warning systems along with an emphasis on strengthening skills and training. Cross-training with different stakeholders (CSOs both in the Netherlands and in countries of intervention, Military, Police, MFA, MoD, NATO etc.) was seen as crucial to build mutual understanding, trust and collaboration capalities, and this wide range of actors should be systematically involved in such trainings. It is important to have a common understanding of roles, cultures and background in a given context and we need to explore practical and concrete ways to do so in an inclusive manner. One interesting suggestion was to build on a ‘coalition of the willing’ to form the basis of a joint training/skills platform. These ideas are to be further developed with input from a broader group.

The meeting report of the February event as well as a short summary of the July meeting will be sent to all participants of the February 24th event and any other party interested, along with a list of activities where input will be sought to gauge the willingness to commit to concrete activities. If you are interested in receiving more information, please contact [email protected]

In parallel to the Annual Conference of the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law ('the Platform') on 24 June 2015, Cordaid and the Van Vollenhoven Institute (VVI) held an event to discuss the progress of their research “Supporting primary justice in insecure contexts, South Sudan and Afghanistan: Exploring people’s concerns and conceptions, responses and remedies, and potential synergies of state and non-state actors”. This research is an 18-month joint research project funded through NWO WOTRO, and entails desk research as well as two periods of in-depth qualitative field research in Afghanistan and South Sudan. 

Facilitated by the Platform, expert practitioners and project staff from Afghanistan, South Sudan and other relevant areas came to the Netherlands. The VVI and The Liaison Office (TLO) presented the findings of the first research phase. For each country, 8 case studies have been written about various types of land and family disputes, and about the ways in which justice seekers and justice providers engage with one another. The researchers presented some important obstacles to justice, as well as some ‘elements of success’. By engaging local researchers and practitioners in both Afghanistan and South Sudan, our research not only contributes to increased knowledge, but also works towards local capacity building.

Breakout session at the Third Annual Conference

Cordaid also hosted a breakout session at the Third Annual Conference of the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law, on Citizens Seeking Justice and Security in Fragile Contexts. In this participatory and interactive workshop, project participants and experts reflected on the (first) findings of a number of research projects on access to justice and security provision (including the research by Cordaid and the VVI). This helped us to look forward to the second round of data collection, during which we intend to make our research more action-oriented. By presenting our findings and setting up the dialogue within the context of the Platform, we were able to share and discuss our findings with a wider audience. Doing so, we envision to turn context-specific ‘elements that work’ into ‘lessons learnt’ that can be used more broadly.

By working together, Cordaid and the VVI bring together the applied view of practitioners with the academic view of the researchers. By actively promoting the dialogue between these two groups of professionals we can come to more in-depth, theoretically sound, and practically applicable knowledge that can be used to promote primary justice in insecure contexts, not only in Afghanistan and South Sudan, but also elsewhere. By discussing our first findings with experts in this field of practice, we have gathered input to further develop innovative tools for action-oriented research.

More information

Further findings will be shared with the wider Platform community through the website of the Platform. For information on the research and/or the event, please contact Rob Sijstermans, Expert Security & Justice at Cordaid: [email protected] 

Research program

To increase security as perceived and experienced by local communities in fragile and conflict-affected environments, Cordaid and the Conflict Research Unit (CRU) of Clingendael have started a joint research program called: “Improving Community Security program design: Better evidence, stronger engagement and deeper learning”. The one-year program has started in January and entails desk research as well as proposed field research in Afghanistan and South Sudan.

This joint effort aspires to further increase the evidence base of community security work, enhance knowledge development and, above all, help local communities to improve their own security situation.

The overall aim of the research is to improve support to local projects that seek to increase security as perceived by local communities. More specifically the aims are:

• To identify political and socioeconomic factors that influence community security in fragile settings;
• To identify methods used to gather information on these factors;
• To develop concrete and practical suggestions to improve the processes through which support packages for local community security programs are selected and developed.

 Participatory validation event

As the core vision of this research is improved community security programming, broader participation and sharing of the research findings, CRU and Cordaid collaborated with the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law (the Platform) in the organization of a participatory validation event on 18 June 2015. The event joined expert practitioners from Afghanistan, South Sudan and other relevant areas.

During the event the first findings of the desk study and underlying assumptions were discussed, validated and further sharpened in two rounds of working groups. The selected participants helped CRU and Cordaid by providing their critical input based on their practical and academic experience.

Participants agreed that security is experienced primarily at the community and local level. However, security is often determined at a political level. This political facet is often under-recognized or under valued. Community security is seen as an entitlement, but this entitlement is distributed unevenly, often to uphold a system of order. The people on the ground are often not being heard at all, and they have no say in their personal security.

The discussions between the participants allowed us to go to the next phase of the research, the field research which will be done in South Sudan and Afghanistan. CRU and Cordaid believe that improving security programming as such is an important step forward in the development world. As one participant put it: “This is truly a courageous undertaking.”

Sharing the findings and getting involved

Cordaid and CRU will create the possibility to share these findings and experiences with the wider Platform community and related development audience. We therefore aspire to hold local and international knowledge sharing events at the end of this year.

If you are interested in receiving more information or if you want to contribute relevant experience, please do so by contacting: Rob Sijstermans, Expert Security & Justice at Cordaid, [email protected]

On 24 June 2015, the Platform held its Third Annual Conference. The conference gathered a great representation of the Platform’s international network and due to the highly interactive and open atmosphere, it provided for a great opportunity to explore the intersections of the Platform’s program. The conference also allowed the network to share insights and experiences with the view to guide the Platform in its future directions. Several artists made live visual interpretations of the day’s discussions, capturing the most important and inspiring messages.

After an energizing opening by moderator Petra Stienen, the day was kick-started by Robert Serry with an insightful conversation on his experiences as Former Diplomat and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. Drawing from his extensive experience in conflict mediation he highlighted negotiating with Hamas as UN Special Envoy for the Middle East. He emphasized the need for a patient, pragmatic and coherent approach to deal with non-state actors: “Quick fixes come back to haunt you…” and “I would take risks with non-state actors if I believe they could help”. But in doing so, low politics needs to go hand in hand with high politics.

During a conversation with the Platform’s Steering Group members, the network shared best practices, lessons learned, and brilliant failures of the Platform, critically assessing  the functioning of the Platform and developing ideas for its future direction. Some of our principal takeaways of the session: “Search for irritation”, make it light, share knowledge products more interactively and tailored to specific audiences and make sure to connect and engage with local networks.

In the closing plenary morning session Jan de Vries and Marco Lankhorst deconstructed the Reconstruction Tender, critically dissecting the way the tender was set up, and suggesting ways to develop ambitious and realistic programs that strike the balance between accountability and agility. In a video response, Rachel Kleinfeld emphasized this message in explaining her brilliant metaphor of how our interventions should move more like sailboats instead of trains, moving towards the same end goal, with a flexible and adaptive route. The ensuing discussion highlighted the impact of the analysis of the Reconstruction Tender on the development of the Theory of Change of the MFA as well as the need for early engagement of implementing organizations in designing the next tender.

In the afternoon, the approximately 100 participants split up into interactive breakout sessions where they were challenged to draw lessons from the Platform’s past and ongoing activities, with the aim of harnessing new insights to chart innovative future directions. The breakout topics focused on the intersections of past and ongoing activities. For an impression of the breakout discussions, please consult the following links:

• Citizens seeking justice and security in fragile contexts | Facilitated by Rob Sijstermans, Cordaid
• Avoiding political entanglement? Or embedding justice in politics? | Facilitated by Bart Weijs, Platform Secretariat
• Testing assumptions: the private sector's contribution to peace and stability |Facilitated by David Bremner, Cordaid
• The current crisis in Burundi: the effectiveness of international engagement | Facilitated by Suying Lai, Oxfam Novib and Gabrielle Solanet, Search for Common Ground
• Migration: exploring the potential of the comprehensive approach | Facilitated by Anna Knoll, ECDPM

The many constructive comments, inspiring ideas and novel insights that emerged from the conference discussions will be taken up in further developing future directions and activities of the Platform.

Please keep an eye on our website to be informed about the main discussions, outcomes and impression of our Third Annual Conference: 

• Blog posts by the Platform’s network members
• Video response by Rachel Kleinfeld

Please find below the summary report of the conference:

Research can provide insight into ‘the business case for peace’ and the ‘business case for conflict’. In the first case companies assign a positive economic value to peace and stability, whereas in the second case conflict is exacerbated by the presence of companies that take advantage of instability. However, too often research on the role of the private sector in fragile and conflict-affected situations does not trickle down to policymakers, civil society or the private sector itself, for that matter.

Facilitated by Anette Hoffmann of the Conflict Research Unit at Clingendael Institute and hosted by the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law, a group of experts gathered on the 21^st of May in The Hague to get a better understanding of the role of the private sector in fragile and conflict-affected situations. The aim was to determine the research gaps as experienced by practitioners; in addition we wanted to identify how practitioners and policymakers can best use existing research in order to change corporate behavior and increase conflict sensitivity by businesses. The expert meeting was organized by SOMO, Oxfam Novib and Tilburg Law School to bring together practitioners, policymakers and academics working in fragile states and interested in the role of the private sector in peace building. Around the table were people from various backgrounds: business and human rights, SME development, economy and peacebuilding, and criminology, among others. This created an interesting exchange of ideas and led to new connections.

Kicking off the meeting, Dirk-Jan Koch, the Dutch Special Envoy for Natural Resources,  conveyed to the audience: “Take that money: do not hesitate to accept corporate funding because research can actually become better as a result.” However, he also made it very clear that corporate funding should only be accepted if the researchers can maintain their professional integrity and independence.

Key conclusions

Of course, money was not the only issue at hand. In three different working groups, people identified and discussed the existing research gaps. One of the key conclusions was that there is a need for research that provides factual, evidence based information. This research should focus on (1) the “business case for peace”, (2) the implementation of international standards in conflict-affected situations, and (3) the different interests within companies: who are the agents of change and how are HQ level policies trickling down to the field level?

Also, it became clear that better channels are needed to spread the information from the world of academics to the world of practitioners and policymakers. A lot of research seldom reaches the people that are actually involved: NGOs, who can use the research results in their lobby and advocacy; policymakers, who can use it to feed into better policies for private sector development in fragile states; and companies, who can improve their business policies and practices by learning from academic insights. According to Prof. Cees van Dam of the Rotterdam School of Management, it is all about framing your research results: “Not from the perspective of right or wrong, but as dilemmas, which is a safe perspective for business people to discuss issues.”

But even within the group of experts, opinions were divided on whether this would be sufficient to change the private sector. Some stated that there is a market for greenwashing of companies’ operations in conflict-affected areas, and that NGOs are being misused by companies, for example to legitimize their involvement in controversial practices. As some of the experts highlighted, there are also companies who are not out there to bring peace, but who actually see the “business case for conflict”. Hence the need for a better understanding of the circumstances under which companies are actually attracted to conflict to make a profit was identified.

“It is hard to talk to business people to get their perspective but it is important to do so”, said Prof. Cees van Dam at the concluding session of the expert meeting. In order to understand the business case for peace or conflict, researchers need to engage with companies, instead of taking an outsider perspective only.

More information

For more information, or to become involved in the follow-up to this meeting, please contact Joyce Kortlandt of Oxfam Novib ([email protected]), Mark van Dorp of SOMO ([email protected]) and Nicola Jägers of Tilburg Law School ([email protected]).

The summary report of the meeting can be found here.

WO=MEN, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law gathered civil society organizations, government institutions and knowledge institutes for an interactive kick-off of the process towards a new Dutch National Action Plan on Resolution 1325.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. This year will also see the launch of the third Dutch National Action Plan 1325, to contribute to the worldwide implementation of and compliance with the resolution. The Netherlands is unique in its collaboration between civil society organisations and the Dutch government on the implementation of the National Action Plan.

The strength of the Dutch National Action plan lies in the diversity of its signatories, and this entails a large diversity of opinions and stakes. At the kick-off meeting this led to engaging debates on numerous subjects. At the end of the day, the participants agreed on the first steps of the process towards NAP 3. The new Plan will be developed  with close involvement of a reading group of various representatives of current NAP signatories.

Way ahead

The reading group will meet on a regular basis with the writing team. In September 2015 a large meeting with all NAP 1325 signatories will take place, to provide feedback on the first draft of the third National Action Plan. The ambition is to present the final National Action Plan by the end of October.

More information

For more information, or to become involved in this process, please contact Anne Kwakkenbos, coordinator NAP 1325.

Integrity’s Project Officer for MENA Sara Habachi hosted a workshop in Beirut on Thursday 23 April 2015, the third and final in a workshop series exploring the barriers to utilising local and national research from Mali, South Sudan and Syria to inform international programming. This workshop series is supported by the Netherlands-based Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law and is being delivered in consortium withSpring Factor and Spark.

Amongst the participants in Beirut were individuals from a diverse range of organisations, including NGOs, research consultancies and local and international researchers who are currently working on the Syrian crisis.

The workshop identified important barriers to the collaboration between local researchers and international interlocutors working on youth employment in Syria. Key findings included limited access due to security and operational issues, as well as limitations to participation as a result of diminished trust and research fatigue. In addition, participants identified a lack of research capability and the limited engagement of Syrians in programme design and implementation.

As part of the final phase of the project, our team will present the findings from all three workshops (Bamako, Juba and Beirut) in The Hague on 28 May 2015. For more information, and to register, please click here. A final report will be made public in June 2015.

If you are interested in receiving more information, please contact [email protected].

Integrity’s South Sudan Country Manager Diana Ware  hosted a workshop in Juba, South Sudan, on Friday 20 March '15, for the second installment in a series of workshops focusing on youth employment and the role of local research.

Amongst the participants were individuals from a diverse range of organizations, including NGOs, research consultancies, local and international researchers and university representatives.

The workshop identified important barriers to the collaboration between local researchers and international interlocutors working on youth employment in South Sudan. Throughout the day, participants worked together to generate ideas and answers regarding two primary questions: 1) What factors prevent research being produced by local and national actors (including the youth) from informing programming by international actors on youth employment? And 2) In what ways can both national and international actors address these challenges and improve the uptake of local research?

One of the key findings was that poor networking between national and international actors acts as a barrier to the use of local researchers.

The outcomes of this workshop will inform a learning network that connects relevant actors to shared experiences and challenges, creating a useful platform for continued work in South Sudan. The workshop was supported by the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law as part of a larger series on exploring local research capacity.