A Window of Opportunity for Somalia: Will External Actors' Peacebuilding Frameworks Help or Hinder the Effort?

We have initiated a project to study external actors’ peacebuilding frameworks in Somalia. The purpose is to ascertain whether and how the international community is applying recent international learning on peacebuilding, and is able to forge coherent and effective approaches to helping countries pursue peaceful political settlements.

This paper briefly outlines the international learning on peacebuilding and political settlements, and the factors that have shaped peacebuilding and state formation in Somalia. We then outline the major peacebuilding and related security frameworks in Somalia, and our proposed methodology to monitor the relevance, coherence and effectiveness of international frameworks going forward. We will monitor policy performance, rather than individual project performance, because priority should be accorded now to monitoring policies, and their translation into implementation practices aimed at building peace. We pay particular attention to generating lessons around formation of the New Deal Compact for Somalia, how external actors prioritize their support for peacebuilding, what can be said about the impact of "bottom up' practices for supporting political settlements, and how counter terrorism and counter priacy initiatives do and do not appear to support national peacebuilding efforts.