The Co-ordination of International Post-Disaster and Peacebuilding Missions
To be effective, international post-disaster or peace-building civil recovery missions must reconcile two, or possibly three, divergent requirements:
- the necessity of bringing together resources from a large number of different and independent sources that will resist any form of hierarchic control,
- the need for effective co-ordination between participants so as to achieve the best sustainable results.
- in peacekeeping operations, the need for greater complementarity between the civil and military programmes.
The Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria is holding a two-day conference for about thirty participants, from 16 to 18 March 2007 to examine how to achieve the required co-ordination, both at the national and international levels. Participants include representatives of governments, international organizations, NGOs, and academics. The results of the conference are to be published and made available for teaching purposes.
This proposal is part of a larger examination by the Centre for Global Studies of the problems and solutions associated with development assistance and security issues, including:
- Conference on Fragile States, Dangerous States and Failed States: What Can Canada Do? This conference was held in November 2005 (see www.failedstates.org)
- The L20 and Failed States A meeting was held on May 18, 2005 in Berlin to explore the possibility of creating a Leaders’ level G20. The Centre for Global Studies represented Canada. The meeting was held in partnership of Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, and was financed by IDRC ($400,000), CIGI ($150,000), IRPP ($30,000), and others
- Rebuilding Shattered States: Contending Strategies in the Transatlantic Community A conference on this subject is being planned for the fall of 2007
