This thesis is an investigation of the potential of agroforestry technologies as means of increasing access to households’ food security, socioeconomic stability and peacebuilding in Jonglei state, South Sudan. The study utilized qualitative research methods, involving 31 key informant interviews, 100 semi-structured interviews, two focus groups discussions and six farmers’ group discussions, farm field visits, and participant’s observations. Findings indicated the majority of the local farmers in Jonglie are widows. These widows are mainly the household heads with large numbers or orphans. This study revealed that these widows are supporting their rural communities through adoption of agroforestry systems and technologies to increase access to food and income security for the poor communities to rebuild their livelihoods asset base to enhance socioeconomic stability and peacebuilding. The study recommended that farmers adopt improved fallow, fodder bank and biomass transfer agroforestry technologies as the most suitable systems for smallholders’ farmers in Jonglie. / The Adventist Development and Relief Agency ( ADRA) Canada

The low participation of women in formal peacebuilding in Africa is a burning concern in the peace and security sphere, as these peace processes have been dominated by men. This has been ascribed to several factors such as the patriarchal culture of most African societies, the “women-as-victim” narrative and the under-reporting of informal contributions women make through their participation in peacebuilding activities. This implies a dichotomy between formal and informal peace processes, and this study argues that the non-recognition of the latter largely accounts for women’s under-representation in formal peacebuilding processes and structures in Africa. Thus, this study examined the informal roles women in West Africa have engaged in to foster peace in their communities, using Sierra Leone as a case to contextualize the argument. The study used qualitative methodology as its approach of enquiry, a case study analysis as its research design, and thematic analysis as its method of analysis to answer the main research question of what informal roles women played to advance the peacebuilding process in Sierra Leone. The radical feminist theory was used to provide theoretical explanation on why women are under-represented in formal peacebuilding structures and to help debunk the women as victim narrative. This is in a bid to contribute to research on women in peacebuilding in West Africa while also creating awareness on the informal peace work, they often engage in. The study found that women participated in the peacebuilding process in Sierra Leone at the informal level and that their contribution was instrumental in kick-starting the official peacebuilding process which ended the civil war. Therefore, just as women are victims of war, they are also active agents of peace, especially informal peacebuilding which are not formally acknowledged. A major recommendation is that Sierra Leone should actively implement its National Action plan on women’s inclusion in peacebuilding to ensure increased women’s participation. Lastly, the study suggests that the African Union should mainstream women’s informal peacebuilding activities into formal peacebuilding across the continent. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Political Sciences / MA / Unrestricted

When looking at societies that are in transition from violence to peace, one of the major issues that is present is the need to reconcile with past adversaries. Political philosophy points to the need for the creation of a social contract that all groups can reach through reasonable agreements. This represents a political reconciliation between groups. This thesis classifies this idea as the need for cognitive reconciliation. The field of Social Psychology points to how negative emotions, or affect, can inhibit the use of reason. The field of Conflict Resolution asserts that there must also be a reconciliation on an emotional level as well. This thesis classifies this as the need for affective reconciliation. This project looks at a way to integrate the cognitive and affective forms of reconciliation into a single model.

Those actors that attempt to influence business approaches to social responsibility are typically concerned with preventing businesses from causing harm or holding businesses accountable for harmful activities when they occur. In post-conflict settings, these twin aims are particularly important given the innumerable instances of businesses undermining transitions from conflict to peace through harmful practices. However, businesses can also be positive agents of change. As an emerging discourse on business and peacebuilding is suggesting, businesses can contribute positively to transitions from conflict to peace in a range of ways. But can other actors influence businesses to engage in peacebuilding processes? Can they require, induce and persuade positive business-based contributions to peacebuilding? If so, how? Examining two case studies on Northern Ireland and South Africa, I will argue that different actors can influence businesses to act as peacebuilding agents. I use the findings from these case studies to consider opportunities for thinking about a global policy instrument on business and peacebuilding.

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There is an increasing trend in youth education and civil society that focuses on global citizenship. The development of the storyteller and story is a highly intuitive practice refined by experience. Literature in education and democracy, elicitive approaches to peacebuilding, and storytelling in education are reviewed. The study is based on three theoretical ideas: (1) that cultural stories encode and transmit knowledge, (2) personal narratives enable the integration of theoretical ideas into their socio-political context, and (3) that storytelling can help students apply their knowledge through positive action. This qualitative study uses grounded theory and a multi-method approach, drawing primarily on twelve semi-structured interviews. The data revealed four key themes that guide storytellers’ learning outcomes: knowledge, culture, dialogue, and agency. Storytellers described storytelling as a powerful pedagogical practice that provides democratic and inclusive spaces capable of facilitating dialogue and promoting student agency.

Since the end of the Cold War internal conflict has emerged more and more into the foreground of concern in the international arena. It is seemingly more perverse and intractable than traditional interstate conflict, and as a result it is increasingly harder to resolve. Recurrence of internal conflict has been and remains to be a significant issue. Because of the nature of internal conflict and the underlying causes of the violence, the way in which its resolution is approached has a significant impact on the likelihood of success. The theory of peacebuilding, while still in its infancy, is gaining more and attention as a way in which to approach internal conflict and help to establish long-term peace in post-conflict societies. This thesis analyses the theory of peacebuilding and develops a framework based on this research that includes what I believe are the most relevant aspects of the approach. This framework is then applied to three cases; East Timor, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. The theory is based on the idea of building long-term sustainable peace. This is done by not only improving the security situation in the host state but also working through the underlying causes of the violence and helping to establish sustainable and self-reliant institutions that will help support peace within the state long after the peacebuilders have withdrawn. The main focus of this research is internal conflict in the Pacific region. Conflict in the region, while somewhat insignificant on an international scale, is disproportionate to the small size of the region. The effects of conflict are felt long after the fighting has stopped. The theory of peacebuilding in the Pacific is approached by examining three peacebuilding missions that have been undertaken in the region and analysing the strengths and weaknesses of these cases. From here the overall success of these missions is examined. Ideas about peacebuilding success are then developed and a look at the future of peacebuilding in the region is outlined.

This study explores past and present conflict in Northern Manitoba through the lens of the Helen Betty Osborne case. Although Helen Betty was murdered over forty years ago, conflict concerning racial discrimination, sexism, and social injustice continues to impact community members in The Pas, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, the R.M. of Kelsey, and other communities living in the province and across Canada. Her story has also undergone processes of silencing and desilencing over time as conflict over past/present social injustice resurfaces. Through the use of semi-structured, one-on-one interviews and focus groups, participants were asked to reflect on the impact of the Osborne case, their experiences with racism in the community, and what could be done to improve cross-cultural relationships moving forward. Using narrative inquiry and an Indigenist philosophy toward research, this study incorporates the stories of these individuals and presents them in a timeline: the past, the present, and the future. Drawing on this structure for analysis provides insight into past and present conflict, yet also reveals the presence of community peacemakers who have contributed to the formation and building of cross-cultural relationships in the area. Key findings revolve around participants’ suggestions for what the community needs to do to move forward and improve cross-cultural relationships, which include youth engagement, learning culture, increased cross-cultural interaction and dialogue, establishing safe places in which conflict can be addressed and vulnerable people can go to for help, and finding innovative ways to “celebrate diversity” and “build a human culture” in diverse communities. Ultimately, though, the significant and rising number of Indigenous women who continue to experience unprecedented levels of abuse in Canada warrants further inquiry into the unique challenges Indigenous women continue to face.

There is an increasing trend in youth education and civil society that focuses on global citizenship. The development of the storyteller and story is a highly intuitive practice refined by experience. Literature in education and democracy, elicitive approaches to peacebuilding, and storytelling in education are reviewed. The study is based on three theoretical ideas: (1) that cultural stories encode and transmit knowledge, (2) personal narratives enable the integration of theoretical ideas into their socio-political context, and (3) that storytelling can help students apply their knowledge through positive action. This qualitative study uses grounded theory and a multi-method approach, drawing primarily on twelve semi-structured interviews. The data revealed four key themes that guide storytellers’ learning outcomes: knowledge, culture, dialogue, and agency. Storytellers described storytelling as a powerful pedagogical practice that provides democratic and inclusive spaces capable of facilitating dialogue and promoting student agency.

This research is concerned with the problems and possibilities of combining diverse forms of peacebuilding in the same peacebuilding space. It analyses patterns of interaction between various forms of peacebuilding using a framework of hybridity. Within debates on peacebuilding hybridities, frictional encounters are situated between international peacebuilders and 'locals' who are predominantly conceptualised as domestic, indigenous and globally Southern. While enhancing understandings of local/international interactions, this conceptualisation excludes constituencies of locals who occupy global spaces - those in diaspora. Diaspora activists have been shown to ambivalently shape other processes of homeland change as either mediators or meddlers due to the opportunities and limitations arising from being in diaspora. In spite of this, an in-depth understanding of the roles of diaspora in hybrid peacebuilding debates is lacking. When diaspora activists have been analysed in relation to peacebuilding, it has been primarily outside of the framework of hybridity which - due to its roots in postcolonial theory - extolls resistance to international peacebuilding as having enormous peacebuilding potential. As such, diaspora who resist international peacebuilding processes have been consistently cast as peace-wreckers which belies the tolerance for resistance so central to hybrid analyses. In light of the potential for diaspora, and particularly those in opposition to formal peacebuilding, to transform, assuage or exacerbate patterns of interaction between locals and internationals, this research centralises diaspora opposition activism in a hybrid analysis of a peacebuilding space. It does this through a single case study of UK Sudanese activists and their contributions to Sudanese peacebuilding. Sudanese peacebuilding is characterised by its diversity: it combines international peace agreements, elite dialogues, top-down transitional justice with local-level community reconciliation and bottom-up political change movements. It therefore provides an exemplary case of a peacebuilding space in which multiple forms of peacebuilding with diverse, and often contradictory aims, coalesce and contend with one another. The study examines how Sudanese activists resident in the UK shape the patterns of interaction within Sudanese peacebuilding, and asks how various aspects of 'being in diaspora' make those contributions possible. In doing so, this research contributes to understandings of how, why and with what effects diverse actors, ideas and processes combine during peacebuilding.