The aim of this thesis is to provide theoretical evidence that a disaster risk reduction perspective within peacebuilding programmes, particularly in countries where disasters and conflict overlap, can contribute positively to the transformation of conflict into sustainable peace. An increasing number of disasters in fragile states and countries affected by armed conflict has brought the attention to know in which way disasters and conflicts collide when they come to occur in the same area, and how disasters can influence on-going peace processes. In order to demonstrate that argument the thesis draws the evolution of the disaster risk management models and peacebuilding frameworks along the last decades and make use of a comprehensive theoretical background to support the subsequent analysis. This thesis contributes to the academic literature and humanitarian reports of studies describing the relation between disasters and conflict but, more concretely, it aims to fill the gap in research studying the links between a disaster risk reduction strategy and peacebuilding programmes. The conclusions of the thesis are that disaster risk reduction initiatives contribute positively in several ways to the different key areas of peacebuilding programmes either as concrete initiatives or as a crosscutting issue. / El objeto de esta tesis es proporcionar sustento teórico a la idea de que una perspectiva de reducción de riesgos de desastre en el marco de programas de construcción de paz puede contribuir positivamente a transformar el conflicto en una paz sostenible, particularmente en países donde desastres naturales y conflicto confluyen. Un número creciente de desastres naturales que acontecen en estados frágiles o países afectados por conflicto armado atrae la atención de profesionales y académicos del ámbito humanitario con el fin de conocer mejor el modo en que conflicto y desastre natural se influyen mutuamente. Esta tesis describe la evolución en las últimas décadas de los modelos de gestión de riesgos de desastre y los marcos operacionales de construcción de paz, además, se sustenta en una amplia base teórica para llevar a cabo el análisis pertinente. La intención es contribuir modestamente a la literatura académica que se ocupa de estudiar la ayuda humanitaria, así como tratar de colaborar en encontrar posibles vínculos entre una estrategia de reducción de riesgos de desastre y los programas de construcción de paz. Las conclusiones de esta tesis indican que las iniciativas de reducción de riegos de desastre contribuyen positivamente en distintos aspectos de las áreas de trabajo de los programas de construcción de paz, ya sea como actividades concretas o como un eje transversal a todo el programa.

Due to processes of change, there has been an increase in reconciliation initiatives around Colombia directed at promoting spaces for human interaction and social reconstruction to be encourage. This repertoire of strategies nurture collective memory, individual trauma healing and communities’ transformation, and become a place for peacebuilding to take place. The following research pretends to determine how art initiatives create and promote a space for reconciliation and peacebuilding processes for people that have participated in them. This thesis is based on the experience of 10 individuals that consider themselves artists and victims, which were interviewed concerning their experience with art performances and exhibitions in music, muralism, cinema, sewing, narration and theatre as instruments of self-reconcilement with traumatic experiences, catharsis processes and peacebuilding strategies for themselves due to their personal experience with the Colombian conflict inside Bogotá, Colombia. This investigation makes use of a qualitative analysis for a narrative investigation based on semi-structured interviews of different individuals who have led and worked in Art performances including theatre plays, narration, mural painting, songwriting, movie production and sewing focused on reconciliation and the construction of peace and memory. At the same time, this research makes use of the exercise and theoretical framework of “the meeting place” by John Paul Lederach as a general guideline on how to approach concepts related to reconciliation and peacemaking. This approach in relation to elements such as truth, mercy, justice and peace provides guiding principles to understand how and to which extent art initiatives act as a strategy in the promotion of personal and collective peace for the interviewees. Furthermore, “the meeting place” as a theoretical approach is necessary for the comprehension of the role art initiatives can have in the creation of a space in which participants can genuinely generate significant change towards the dissolution of tensions, truth-telling, catharsis processes, pain handling and the fortification of human relations. This thesis however does not indicate how the art initiatives promoted by the participants affected its viewers. This thesis concludes by supporting the argument that art provided a space for reconciliation and for meaningful processes of peacebuilding to rise in the case of all interviewees as they personally used art as a coping mechanism which provided a space for reconciliation for themselves.