Preventing conflict and making, keeping and building peace is a priority in Norwegian foreign policy. This also applies to development policy.

Norway has for a long time played an active role in peacemaking processes and peacekeeping operations. However, experience has shown that after the cease-fire or the peace agreement conflict often flares up again. Greater emphasis thus needs to be given to peacebuilding: to preventing armed conflict from breaking out, facilitating and supporting peacemaking processes in countries in conflict, and helping to rebuild post-conflict societies to prevent the violence from recurring. This means that peace negotiations must be supplemented by a broad range of measures to advance security and political, social and economic development. The aim of peacebuilding is lasting and sustainable peace within and between states.

The responsibility for peacebuilding lies naturally with the parties involved, but the international community can assist in these efforts. Peacebuilding - a development perspective outlines a strategic framework for Norway’s role in international peacebuilding efforts in countries and regions threatened by, undergoing or emerging from violent conflict.

Peacebuilding is an important task, but a difficult one. This strategic framework is designed to help us intensify and target our efforts to make them as effective as possible. But even though we now have a common platform on which to base Norway’s support for and participation in peacebuilding efforts, we must not forget that every conflict situation is unique, and that peacebuilding must be tailored accordingly. Norway will use this strategic framework to implement its policy in countries, regions and organisations, and will promote good donor practices in this area as well.

There is an enormous need for peacebuilding, and it calls for considerable human and economic resources. We must enhance our competence and capacity so that we are better equipped to achieve the desired results.

International efforts to prevent violent conflicts and build lasting and sustainable peace can help to prevent human suffering and loss of life, to reduce poverty and to mitigate the negative consequences of conflicts far beyond the areas where they are being fought. Norway can and should contribute to intensifying and targeting these efforts. The strategic framework for peacebuilding will assist us in this endeavour.

Hilde F. Johnson
16 August 2004

Summary

Preventing conflict and making, keeping and building peace is a priority in Norwegian foreign policy, including development policy.

The term “peacebuilding” has been part of the vocabulary of international politics since 1992, but there is still a certain amount to be done as regards clearing up conceptual confusion, developing strategic frameworks and establishing good donor practices. The Norwegian government will work at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels for comprehensive, coherent and well co-ordinated efforts by the international community to prevent conflict and build peace.

Norway will strengthen the available peacebuilding instruments, gather information and seek to learn from experience. It will continue to build competence in the foreign service concerning the use of development co-operation for peacebuilding purposes.

Peacebuilding is an important supplement to peacemaking processes and peacekeeping operations. Peacebuilding covers a broad range of measures implemented in the context of  emerging, current or post-conflict situations  for the deliberate and explicit purpose of promoting lasting and sustainable peace. Many of the elements of peacebuilding are the same as those of development co-operation with countries that are not affected by conflict, but the context and purpose are different and require an extra-sensitive approach as to what should be done and how it should be done.

Peacebuilding can

Peacebuilding has three, mutually reinforcing dimensions:

1. security
2. political development
3. social and economic development

Peacebuilding should encompass all three dimensions at the same time. A sequential approach is not usually to be recommended.

Security

Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration

• Norway is seeking to ensure that the International Finance Institutions, the UN system and the relevant humanitarian organisations intensify and co-ordinate their efforts and clarify the division of labour as regards the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DD&R) of ex-combatants. Norway also contributes financially to these efforts.
• It is especially important to emphasise the civilian aspects and intensify efforts to reintegrate child and women soldiers.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Defence International Centre (FOKIV) have, in co-operation with sister organisations in Sweden, Canada and Germany, developed a cross-disciplinary programme on DD&R for civil and military personnel working with peace operations and peacebuilding. A manual on DD&R has also been published. Other forms of competence building are being considered in response to the UN’s need for a resource base of DD&R personnel (instructors and field operators).

Humanitarian mine action

• Norway will continue to co-ordinate and strengthen the implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (the Mine Ban Convention) of 1997. This includes supporting mine clearance, stockpile destruction, information campaigns and assistance to mine victims.
• Norway will continue its close co-operation with NGOs and give substantial support to humanitarian mine action under the auspices of the UN, primarily through support for UNDP and UNICEF.

Small arms control

• Norway will continue its role as a prime mover in the efforts to gain control over the international trade in small arms and light weapons.
• Norway supports the efforts to develop norms and rules in addition to the UN’s Action Plan to Reduce Small Arms (2001) and the Additional Protocol on Firearms to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (2001), primarily in connection with the falsifying or altering of the markings on firearms, the regulation of arms brokering, and the development of export criteria for small arms transfers.
• In 1999 Norway took the initiative to establish the UNDP’s Small Arms Trust Fund, which has received substantial support from other countries.
• Norway will continue to support regional and sub-regional co-operation on stopping illicit trafficking in small arms.

Security system reform

• Norway has co-operated with other countries in the OECD/DAC and in the Utstein network¹ on developing a common policy on security system reform. Norwegian efforts will be based on the OECD/DAC document Security System Reform and Governance: Policy and Good Practice (2004), and we will draw up operational guidelines for following up this initiative. It is particularly important to promote the civil authorities’ capacity for control of the security sector and to support transparency and accountability in connection with military budgets.
• Norway will make use of the Crisis Response Pool it has established for providing technical assistance in the police, justice and prison sector.

Political development

Support for political and administrative authorities and structures

• Norway attaches great importance to helping to build up legitimate national authorities and structures with the capacity to deliver, especially in post-conflict countries. Peace efforts must be firmly based on the recipient country’s own priorities. Recipient responsibility presupposes a political legitimacy and administrative capacity that in many cases have to be restored or rebuilt. Rapid financial and technical support for political and administrative structures is often one of the first steps in a peacebuilding process.

Reconciliation

• Norway supports reconciliation measures in connection with, and also independently of, its role in peacemaking processes.
• Reconciliation among political, military, religious, business and other leaders, and also at middle management and at grass roots level, is vital for preventing conflict and promoting and building peace.
• Reconciliation should be integrated into the efforts by all actors in countries that have been, are and are becoming affected by violent conflict. It may also be promoted through special measures.
• Civil society plays a particularly significant role in reconciliation processes.

Good governance, democracy and human rights

• Norway will continue its efforts at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels to promote good governance in development co-operation. Special emphasis is given to fighting corruption, including war-related corruption.
• Norway supports democracy building and democratisation processes. NORDEM and the Norwegian Centre for Democracy Support, whose purpose is to support fledgling democracies in the South, make important contributions to the efforts to consolidate democracy in Norway’s partner countries.
• Norway will focus more strongly on reform of the justice sector in post-conflict situations and is prepared to support countries that are seeking to build a society based on the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights.
• Norway’s efforts to integrate human rights considerations into its peacebuilding activities are based on its Plan of Action for Human Rights (1999).
• A special focus will be trained on women’s and children’s rights and participation, in keeping with international development goals.

Civil society, including the media

• Norway supports civil society building in the South, both directly and indirectly through Norwegian NGOs, in order to enhance the civil society's  competence and capacity to contribute to lasting and sustainable peace.
• Norway will develop guidelines for supporting free and independent media in the South.

Judicial process and truth commissions

• Norway is seeking to mobilise the broadest possible support for the International Criminal Court.
• Norway will continue to support the international criminal tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
• Norway will continue to support truth commissions and programmes for information in conflict areas on important international judicial decisions.

Social and economic development

Repatriation and reintegration of refugees and internally displaced persons

• Norway will continue its efforts to promote durable solutions for refugees and internally displaced persons, including legal and physical protection and material support, and will seek to improve the co-ordination of multilateral efforts in this field.
• Norway supports the initiative for a comprehensive approach by and improved co-operation between UNHCR, UNDP and the World Bank to assisting refugees and internally displaced persons (the 4Rs programme).
• Norway will continue to channel substantial funds through UNICEF, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the International Red Cross and NGOs.

Reconstruction of infrastructure and important public functions

• Norway supports mechanisms for the reconstruction of infrastructure and important public functions in countries emerging from violent conflict. This involves the reconstruction of roads, buildings and electricity and telecommunications networks so that the population experiences as soon as possible that peace brings dividends.

Social development: education and health

• Norway’s efforts to ensure education for all by 2015 are based on its strategy Education – Job Number 1. Education and health are key peacebuilding activities. Improving education and health care in conflict and post-conflict situations is a vital task.
• Norway will advocate and support policies that promote more equitable distribution and counteract social marginalisation, include previously excluded groups, and that are non-discriminatory as regards sex and ethnic, religious, social and geographical affiliation.
• Norway will continue to contribute to improvements in education and health care through Norwegian and international NGOs, the UN system, the International Finance Institutions and bilateral government-to-government co-operation.

Economic development: private sector development, employment, trade and investment

• Norway has for several years supported research projects to raise international awareness and increase international understanding of the economic causes and driving forces of violent conflict, and will seek to transform the findings into practical policy.
• Norway works at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels to promote transparency and accountability in the extractive industries (e.g. through the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative). This includes promoting corporate social responsibility, for example through KOMpakt (the Consultative Body for Human Rights and Norwegian Economic Engagement Abroad). It is important in this context to strike the right balance between voluntary action and legally binding rules.
• Norway’s support to private sector development is mainly based on its Strategy for Private Sector Development in the South. Two of the priority countries under this strategy, Sri Lanka and Uganda, are facing considerable challenges in connection with peacebuilding.
• Norway also considers it important to facilitate access to capital and credit and to work for the formalisation of property rights.

Countries and regions

• Norway will intensify its efforts to promote peacebuilding in its main partner countries and  partner countries, and will ensure that peacebuilding is integrated into the guidelines for development co-operation between Norway and countries in conflict.
• Norway will give priority to countries where it is or has been involved in peacemaking processes.
• Norway will seek at national and international level to ensure that peacemaking processes are linked in an appropriate way with peacebuilding efforts.
• Norway will seek to ensure that the international community’s peacebuilding efforts are predictable and have a long-term perspective and that conflict areas that are no longer in the public eye receive support for peacebuilding.
• Norway considers that peacebuilding should, where possible and appropriate, have a regional perspective.
• Norway will support the work being done in the African Union and other regional co-operation organisations, including ECOWAS and SADC, to develop security structures and peacebuilding capacity.
• Norway will continue and intensify competence building efforts in the field of peacebuilding, including research and evaluation, that are carried out in Norway and abroad.

Good donor practices

• Norway promotes good donor practices in connection with peacebuilding at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. In this task Norway gives particular emphasis to national ownership, co-ordination of the international community’s efforts and harmonisation of procedures.
• Norway seeks to ensure that the strategic frameworks for the international community’s peacebuilding efforts in conflict-affected countries and regions are based on joint conflict analyses and needs assessments. Norway will contribute to the division of responsibility and labour based on the comparative advantages of the various actors.
• Norway is reviewing the various methods of conflict analysis and peace and conflict impact assessments with a view to training in the use of these tools.
• Norway gives priority to providing political and economic support to capacity- and competence-building activities by the UN and other multilateral organisations in order to enhance these organisations’ ability to promote lasting and sustainable peace.
• Norway’s peacebuilding efforts in the various countries and regions will contribute to  enhancing and developing a unified, international approach headed by the UN system and with the active participation of the International Finance Institutions.
• Norway will advocate an increase in financial contributions to peacebuilding and will support the establishment of an effective organisational structure and a financing model for international co-operation in this area that are tailored to the situation in question. Norway will as a rule support joint financing mechanisms in transitional situations in order to avoid a multiplicity of different bilateral projects and programmes and to enable recipient countries to manage the process themselves.
• Norway will continue its co-operation and dialogue with Norwegian NGOs on their conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities, among other things with a view to ensuring that all Norwegian activities in conflict-affected countries contribute to peace.
• Several of Norway’s main priorities must also be integrated into peacebuilding activities. This is particularly true of the fight for human rights. Women are an important resource and have special interests and needs, and Norway is seeking to mainstream a gender-equality approach in all processes and at every level in all conflict prevention and peace-promoting efforts. Norway is developing a plan to follow up Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security.
• Norway is developing a strategy for improving conditions for children and young people in the South, which will also take up the situation of children and young people in connection with conflict and in peace activities.