Communication for peacebuilding.
Practice and
approaches of the NGO sector
Ana Fernández Viso
Institute of Communication, Autonomous University of Barcelona
2011 IAMCR Conference, “Cities, Connectivity and Creativity”
Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 July 2011
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
Paper structure
I. Research methodology
II. Theoretical framework: From conflict transformation to peace, social change
and development
III. Communication for peacebuilding: definition, approaches and practices
IV. Researching communication for peacebuilding within the NGO sector
V. Going beyond media towards processes and relationships
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
1. Research methodology
Documentary analysis:
• Reference academic works on conflict resolution and peacebuilding
• Main works by Adam Curle, Johan Galtung, John Burton, Edward Azar, and John Paul Lederach
(positive peace approach)
• Strategic documents on peacebuilding approches and projects by international organizations (UN,
WB, DFID, DANIDA, SIDA, NORAD, USAID, CIDA, OECD) and NGOs (SFCG, Internews, BBC World
Service Trust, Communication Initiative Network’s database, etc.)
Field work:
• Identification of Catalan NGOs working for peacebuilding over the last five years (research sample=
62 organizations)
• Analytical review of key documents: annual reports (2008-2009), master plans, presentations,
project reports, and information available on their websites
• Telephone consultations
• In-depth interviews (16 people, 9 NGOs)
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
2. Theoretical framework: from conflict transformation to peace, social change
and development
International Relations: Public Diplomacy (soft power);
Media effects on foreign policy (CNN effect).
Conflict Resolution:
• Kenneth Boulding & Michigan University Group (1945-1965):
data collection and processing to develop scientific knowledge
about the build-up of conflicts (indicators for early warning &
conflict prevention)
• Problem-Solving Approach (negotiation): “controlled
communication” to counter misperceptions and introduce
empirical knowledge = precondition to negotiate (John Burton,
Harvard Programme on Negotiation [Fisher & Ury])
• Mediation: Intervention of a third party to build, maintain and
improve communication between conflict parties (attitudes and
behavior) (Adam Curle, Mitcheli & Webb, Lederach)
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
2. Theoretical framework: from conflict transformation to peace, social change
and development
Peace Studies Direct violence
(behavior)
Visible
Positive peace = absence of direct, structural and cultural
violence (Johan Galtung) Invisible
Cultural violence Structural violence
(attitudes & beliefs) (context, contradiction)
Peacebuilding:
Galtung’s violence triangle
• Overcoming the structural contradiction which lies at the root
of the conflict (human needs, social justice & development)
(Galtung, Burton, Azar)
Communication imperialism = structural violence
• Building equitable and symmetric relationships (horizontal (NOMIC)
communication) (Curle, Galtung, Lederach)
Media = producers, reproducers and transmitters
• Changing beliefs, attitudes and values (Peace Culture) of culture (Peace Journalism, Peace Media,
Peace Education, & Media Policy)
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
2. Theoretical framework: from conflict transformation to peace, social change
and development
Conflict Transformation
Structural problem
• Edward Azar & John Burton, Jean Paul Lederach Subsystem
• It goes beyond the resolution of particular problems Relationships
• Systemic approach (interdependency–levels, actors, actions,
stages) Issue
• Long-term process (process-structure)
• Relationships = at the heart of conflict emergence and resolution
• Communication as a relationships web (potential of medium Lederach’s nested paradigm of
levels) conflict / transformation levels
• Goal= Build and organize social, economic, and institutional Crisis intervention
relationships to meet human basic needs (substantive justice) and Preparation and training
provide access to resources and decision-making (procedural
Design of social change
justice) (Lederach)
Desired future
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
3. Communication for Peacebuilding: definition, approaches and practices
Definition
Communication for peacebuilding includes a multiple set of strategies, processes and
Relationships
interactions aimed to overcome or minimize communication deficiencies and gaps
between and among the many actors that interact within and with the conflict, influencing
its dynamics and being, in turn, influenced by it.
Ultimately, it attempts to contribute to the establishment of peaceful, balanced and
constructive relationships between them, that enable the collective design of
emancipatory social change processes.
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
3. Communication for Peacebuilding: definition, approaches and practices
8 approaches to communication for peacebuilding
1. Interventions in the realm of national media in the country in conflict (journalists
training on professional standars & human rights, conflict resolution; support of EE contents;
media policy; peace journalism; intercultural projects; so on)
2. Interventions aimed to influence the international media coverage of the conflict
(alternative information & special reports ; journalists training; press language critical analysis –
peace journalism; advocacy events; so on)
3. Interventions in the real of community media & citizen journalism in the country in
conflict (technical, financial and material assistance; training in journalism standars, media
management, strategic use of ICTs; community media policy; support to develop artistic-
communicative initiatives –theater, community video, puppets, cinema-, so on)
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
3. Communication for Peacebuilding: definition, approaches and practices
8 approaches to communication for peacebuilding
4. Interventions aimed to re-build trust and re-knit the social fabric (C. Rodriguez) in the
country in conflict (promotion of community dialogue and collective action; coming –together activities;
establishment of nonviolent conflict resolution mechanisms; joint research projects on common problems;
healing & forgiveness projects, so on)
5. Interventions aimed to influence the attitudes and behavior towards social communication
of the socio-political actors of the country in conflict (training in media democratic role, right to
information and communication, media policy, nonviolent conflict resolution & dialogical processes; support
to the articulation of citizens’ political demands, so on)
6. Interventions aimed to influence the communicative attitudes and behavior of both
international and local humanitarian and development aid agencies & organizations
(networks; coordination of situation diagnosis, monitoring of tension indicators, strategies, projects and
resources; trainings on their informative role about the conflict, so on)
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
3. Communication for Peacebuilding: definition, approaches and practices
8 approaches to communication for peacebuilding
7. Interventions to support other peacebuilding and conflict transformation programs (media
campaigns about peacebuilding programs, initiatives & efforts; diffusion of materials on civic education &
intercultural coexistence; reconstruction of collective memory of the conflict and right to truth, so on)
8. Interventions aimed to influence the attitudes and behavior towards the conflict of foreign
governments and both international political community and public opinion ( social
sensibilization & education actions and campaigns; advocacy campaigns; social mobilization campaigns;
elaboration & diffusion of studies on the conflict impact upon most vulnerable groups; monitoring and
reporting human rights abuses; so on)
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
4. Researching Communication for Peacebuilding within the NGO sector
• Research team: 3 people (academic & NGO members)
• Identification of Catalan NGOs working for peacebuilding over the last five years (research
sample= 62 organizations)
• Definition and typology of approaches as guidance to analyze the strategic approach and
use of communication for peacebudiling (innovative & good practices)
• Analytical review of key documents: annual reports (2008-2009), master plans,
presentations, project reports, and information available on their websites.
• Telephone consultations.
• In-depth interviews (16 people, 9 NGOs)
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
4. Researching Communication for Peacebuilding within the NGO sector
• Intuitive use of communication, neither preceded by reflection nor followed by evaluation
(38,7% includes explicitly in their strategy premises and goals of communication for peacebuilding –they
never use this term-)
• Participatory peacebuilding from below (national and international civil society), from a
glocal perspective (global civil society and political community) and encompassing different
dimensions (personal, relational, structural and cultural)
• Spanish-Catalan NGOs use 2,7 approaches out of the 8 previously identified
Uso de enfoques de comunicacion para la paz Intervenciones para cambio actitudes y
de las ONGs catalanas comportamientos opinión pública internacional
Refuerzo a otros proyectos de construcción
de paz
Intervención con otras ONGs y/o agencias
internacionales/ Trabajo en red
Estrategias
Intervenciones para incidir sobre lideres
políticos nacionales
Reconstrucción lazos sociales
Intervención medios comunitarios/ periodismo
ciudadano
Intervención cobertura medios internacionales
0 20 40 60
Intervención panorama medios nacionales
Nº entidades que las utilizan
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
4. Researching Communication for Peacebuilding within the NGO sector
• Being part of an international NGO (Red Cross, Oxfam, Action Against Hunger) = associated
with the strategic use of communication for peacebuilding. On the contrary, the budget
dimension doesn’t work as indicator of knowledge and use of communication strategies.
• Positive peace concept, but development aid organizations and humanitarian aid NGOs
work apart from each other (conflict awareness & peace culture in Spain vs development
projects in the field).
• Multi-track and multi-stakeholders approach to peacebuilding: civil society empowerment
& organization, networks.
• Communication with other stakeholders to coordinate conflict diagnosis, strategies and
actions = 2º most popular approach, yet it remains a big challenge.
• 1/3 work with local partners to assist them to set up favorable communication conditions
for rebuilding trust and social bonds, generating and increasing self-organization competences
for participating in decision-making processes, developing communicative resources and skills
and strengthening collective abilities to peacefully face conflict analysis and resolution.
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
4. Researching Communication for Peacebuilding within the NGO sector
• Information, denunciation, sensibilization & education activities related to particular
conflicts are concentrated in Spain/Catalonia (public opinion and political leaders). Just 8 out
of 62 run these type of projects in countries in conflict.
• Just 1/3 of them take the step forward to advocacy of concrete decisions and solutions.
Even less (11%) carry out social mobilization campaigns.
• Only 3 out of 62 NGOs have projects aim to influence in the country in conflict the nationwide
media news coverage of the conflict and their entertainment contents.
• Only 6 of them support community/citizen media and civil society organizations to develop
their communication and technical competences to produce and spread their own messages
and, eventually, to get their voices heard.
Communication for peacebuilding. Practice and approaches of the NGO sector
5. Going beyond media towards processes and relationships
• Genuine participation involves re-descovering and dealing with the heterogeneity of
interest, values, beliefs, choices, passions, needs and, in short, with conflicts and politics
(subversive potential).
• Conflict is an intrinsic and unavoidable aspect of social change. However, insufficiently
accounted for in the communication for social change theoretical approach (conflict resolution
& peace studies as foreigners)
• Highly normative approach: dialogical Freirean and Habermasian models focus on processes
that yet led to confrontation (the public sphere is neither a realm of straight-forward rational
deliberation, nor a smooth space of unforced assent)
• Conflict transformation approach to social change offers us a stimulating framework to
reconsider the social change dynamics under real world conditions as well as to take complexity
into account in our analysis and strategies.
• Conflict transformation practice invites us to go beyond media and even processes to look at
relations and multiple and complex connections (time, actors, levels, actions, dimensions)
Thanks for your attention
Ana Fernández Viso
Researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona
[email protected] 2011 IAMCR Conference, “Cities, Connectivity and Creativity”
Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 July 2011
