Breakout session on ‘Grassroots Peacebuilding – and linking it to national and international levels’, first talk: Fr Elias Omondi Opongo, Ph.D. candidate, Dept of Peace Studies, Bradford University. The end of the Cold War marked a new beginning for Non Governmental Organizations' (NGOs) engagement in peacebuilding and conflict transformation at the grassroots and middle level interventions. However, while the last two decades have seen a decrease in inter-state wars, intra-state conflicts escalated, subsequently provoking a gradual paradigm shift in responding to humanitarian crisis in conflict settings: from a relief only approach, to relief-development, and recently to a conflict intervention and peace-building approach. But what are the interactive conflict dynamics that render NGOs as leading age actors in complex emergencies to sustainable peacebuilding processes?

NGO Peacebuilding in Complex Emergencies: the case of Eastern Africa

This Conference was organised by an ad hoc multidisciplinary group in Oxford University, which had begun in 2006 to discuss how to network and raise the profile of the research already being done in Oxford on peace, peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping. The title ‘The Serious Study of Peace’ underlines that peace was no longer seen merely as a fringe interest but was beginning to take its place in academe as a matter of serious concern to which a wide range of disciplines can contribute. The focus on peace adds a fresh dimension to established disciplines and engenders a distinctive interdisciplinary synergy. The Conference resulted in the creation of the ongoing Oxford Network of Peace Studies (OxPeace), with worldwide contacts, and led to the possibility, once endowments become available, of the establishment of research and teaching posts in peace studies in Oxford. 

The conference organizers included Revd Dr Liz Carmichael MBE (Tutor in Theology, St John's), Dr Phil Clark (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, and Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group), Professor Mary King (Fellow, Rothermere Institute; UN University for Peace), Revd Dr Robin Gibbons (Kellogg), Professor Neil Macfarlane (International Relations), Dr Sondra Hausner (St Peter's; anthropologist, head of Study of Religions in Theology), Dr Hugo Slim (Visiting Fellow: Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict), and Bryony Winn (Rhodes Scholar, M.Phil. Development Studies, Student Assistant).

Education

This Conference was organised by an ad hoc multidisciplinary group in Oxford University, which had begun in 2006 to discuss how to network and raise the profile of the research already being done in Oxford on peace, peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping. The title ‘The Serious Study of Peace’ underlines that peace was no longer seen merely as a fringe interest but was beginning to take its place in academe as a matter of serious concern to which a wide range of disciplines can contribute. The focus on peace adds a fresh dimension to established disciplines and engenders a distinctive interdisciplinary synergy. The Conference resulted in the creation of the ongoing Oxford Network of Peace Studies (OxPeace), with worldwide contacts, and led to the possibility, once endowments become available, of the establishment of research and teaching posts in peace studies in Oxford. The conference organizers included Revd Dr Liz Carmichael MBE (Tutor in Theology, St John's), Dr Phil Clark (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, and Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group), Professor Mary King (Fellow, Rothermere Institute; UN University for Peace), Revd Dr Robin Gibbons (Kellogg), Professor Neil Macfarlane (International Relations), Dr Sondra Hausner (St Peter's; anthropologist, head of Study of Religions in Theology), Dr Hugo Slim (Visiting Fellow: Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict), and Bryony Winn (Rhodes Scholar, M.Phil. Development Studies, Student Assistant).

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NGO Peacebuilding in Complex Emergencies: the case of Eastern Africa

NGO Peacebuilding in Complex Emergencies: the case of Eastern Africa

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