Author(s): Laura Davis
2010-06-15

Transitional justice can help societies address the legacy of systematic human rights violations committed during violent conflict and repressive rule through prosecutions, truth-seeking, reparations and institutional reform. Transitional justice is not a new field for the EU, and the EU is a major contributor to transitional justice initiatives, especially international criminal justice. This paper analyses EU policy provisions for transitional justice. It argues that rather than simply support endeavours undertaken by others, the EU should draw on its experience and international best practice to develop a holistic EU approach to transitional justice to help it meet its foreign policy objectives.

Author(s): Sarah-Lea John de Sousa
2010-06-01

This paper argues that the international community’s engagement in Angola appears to reinforce, rather than doing anything to improve, the current state-society relations in the de-facto authoritarian system. The economic interests of foreign actors seem to override the commitment to achieve good governance and transparency. Although there are important entry points for international actors to exert a positive influence, what is crucial but still absent is a deeper level of donor commitment from global powers as well as private and public companies and financial entities, in order to overcome the gap between state elite and population and bring about real democratic change and consolidation in Angola.

Author(s): Jennifer Smith with Edward Bell'
2010-03-31

This paper examines how despite the fact that “governance” is a key pillar of donor strategies in the DRC, little has been done to try and modify the personal, economic and political incentives that underpin the behaviour of politicians, policy-makers, businessmen or taxpayers. It highlights the need for the international community to rebalance its approach to development. “Traditional” external donors tend to concentrate on directly pressuring the Congolese government actors to behave in particular ways, often offering technical support to ensure the promised implementation of nominal reforms. These donors need to take a step back to assess whether their heavily funded engagement in the DRC is improving the situation on the ground or if, perhaps, it is providing an incentive for continued failure.

Author(s): Patrícia Magalhães Ferreira
2009-06-10

The Angolan peace process was far from typical, and the country’s road to reconstruction is also unlike that of other African conflicts and post-conflict scenarios. Although the context of “energy realpolitik” undermines the capacity of foreign actors to influence state-society relations, another factor needs to be taken into account: Angola’s internal will to improve the country’s international image and to become a regional power.

Author(s): Edward Bell
2009-05-01

Four country analyses (Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia and Pakistan) as well as cross-cutting work on transitional justice have underpinned the IfP synthesis paper: Society in Statebuilding. The paper explores the nature of governance and political participation in conflict-affected countries. It also puts in context the efforts of donor agencies to support ‘democratic governance. Given challenges inherent in their mandates, foreign policy and the dominant aid paradigm of “national ownership”, the paper offers recommendations on how such support should be conceived and implemented in order to strengthen both the social contract between society and the state and social cohesion amongst societal groups.

Author(s): Eka Metreveli and Jonathan Kulick
2009-04-15

Georgia’s majority ethnic-Armenian region of Javakheti suffers from a legacy of geographic, political and social isolation from the rest of the country. This reality has had a profound impact upon systems of governance and accountability in the region and in relation to the centre. Instead of establishing rule of law and carrying out national integration policies, the centre’s control over the region was achieved by legitimising local influential power holders and incorporating them into the formal state structures by granting them high positions in the local administration or parliamentary mandates. The region’s political and economic isolation makes it a legitimate concern for Georgia and the international community. This report provides an overview of the formal and informal dimensions of governance in Javakheti and Georgia in order to provide external actors with a snapshot of both the challenges to and opportunities for improved governance based on the realities of existing power dynamics.

Author(s): Jennifer Smith
2009-03-24

The democratisation process in the DRC has raised the hopes of Congolese people that long periods of poverty, weak governance and conflict would come to an end. Yet a case study of South Kivu province found that donor support to democratisation processes has tended to focus most heavily on central government levels, rather than on building a relationship of accountability between ordinary people and the leaders they face on a daily basis. This paper argues that donors should increase their support to local governance in a way that demonstrates concrete and visible changes in order to generate a strong national constituency for democratic reform.

Author(s): Laura Davis & Thomas Unger
2009-03-12

Justice in Peacebuilding: Towards a policy framework for the European Union

Author(s): Marco Mezzera, Safiya Aftab
2009-01-09

The application of the State-Society Analytical Framework (SSAF) on the context of Pakistan helps revealing the complex historical interaction between formal and informal factors, and their eventual influence on the nature of the current relationship between the Pakistani state and its citizens. Structured around the three main analytical dimensions of the methodology, the analysis emphasizes the importance of factors such as the country’s colonial history, its geopolitical position, the deep-running social systems, and the main actors competing for power, in understanding the current situation of fragility affecting the country. In the midst of a rather bleak picture, some elements still emerge that if properly interpreted and acted upon, could offer the international community significant opportunities to support long-term processes of genuine democratization and building of substantive citizenship for most Pakistanis.

Author(s):
2008-05-01

Donors tend to promote better governance by promoting capacity in executive government, representation and accountability through parliament, an autonomous civil service, and an active civil society. These are largely conceived out of Western experience and can be overly ‘supply-driven’. Many experts, inside and outside of donor agencies, are now trying to improve these approaches by looking more closely at power dynamics and incentives for change. In line with these efforts to ‘take context as the starting point’ for engagement, the State-Society Analytical Framework (SSAF) directs attention towards (i) the Foundational Factors, (ii) the Rules of the Game, and (iii) the ‘Here and Now’ issues which determine the nature of the challenges. Over the coming months, the IfP partners in this cluster will apply this common methodology in four focus countries: Angola, the DRC, Georgia and Pakistan. The learning will then be brought together to provide generic lessons for improving external assistance in fragile and conflict-affected countries.