Citizen peacebuilding projects are designed and implemented by people who are not government officials, to create or enhance attitudes, conceptualizations, processes and structures which are conducive to peace. Such projects might involve dialogue, healing psychological conflict trauma, peace education, cooperation across conflict lines, supporting the development of peace structures, advocating peace policy, and/or democratization as peacebuilding. For a more detailed definition, click here.

The Citizen Peacebuilding Database Project is collecting comparable information on a broad variety of citizen peacebuilding efforts around the world. The database will be placed on this website, freely accessible to anyone with internet access. It will thus promote information flows, networking and cooperation among practitioners of citizen peacebuilding, donors and other relevant actors. We expect it will also be very useful for research on how various types, amounts and contexts of citizen peacebuilding affect conflicts. This research can identify best practices which in turn should help peacebuilders to guide their efforts effectively and donors to invest their money wisely.

The database will contain detailed information both on citizen peacebuilding projects and on the organizations which conduct them. In addition to organizations’evaluations of the impact of their projects, the database will eventually also contain indicators of the broader progress towards peace of the conflicts in which such projects are situated, gathered from independent sources. Our intent is to assess the collective impact of such projects at the community and conflict area levels. We will also post insightful quotes and stories we gather from citizen peacebuilders, and links to relevant research.

In April/May 2004, we conducted our first round of interviews, with 29 organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based on analysis of these data, we have adjusted our questionnaire to better capture what we think are the key issues, and are now contacting these organizations to adjust their responses accordingly. We now have the answers we have received to the revised QUESTIONNAIRES online. Some organizations have not yet responded to the revised questionnaire, so these have only their answers to the original questionnaire included. Note that we have collected detailed information on only one project per organization at this stage, and that these questions are specific to 2003. We encourage you to take a look at these organizations and their impressive projects! For a story based on our interview of a citizen peacebuilding organization working in Srebrenica, click here.

In coming months, we expect to conduct similar interviews with citizen peacebuilding organizations in Georgia/Abkhazia and Northern Ireland. We intend to continue expanding our coverage of organizations in these two conflict areas, and to add other conflict areas as resources permit. Stay tuned!

For more information, to contribute suggestions, or to be notified of updates, contact:

Bruce Hemmer, Graduate Student Researcher
bhemmer@uci.edu

Dr. Paula Garb
1-949-824-1227 pgarb@uci.edu

Definition of Citizen Peacebuilding Projects
Questionnaire
Citizen Peacebuilding Organizations Interviewed in:

Bosnia and Herzegovina (more detailed data coming soon)