In January 2003, NSI and six southern institutes initiated a one-year process of joint project development, on the basis of IDRC seed funding. In January 2004, NSI and southern partners officially launched the WKOP Project, a collaborative research and policy engagement project designed to address key peacebuilding challenges. The WKOP Project explored the difficulties and possibilities for long-term sustainable peacebuilding in six conflict-prone societies. It compared two cases where relative success can be observed over the long term (Guatemala and Mozambique), and four cases where renewed violence raises serious questions about the quality of peace being built (Haiti, Palestine, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka). Most partners examined performance in areas of economic policy and democratic governance, including at the local level in selected municipalities. Two Norwegian partner institutes joined the project in 2005: they explored linkages between disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants and sustainable peacebuilding in Afghanistan and Guatemala. PSR and IDRC also worked together to revisit DDR challenges in the Palestinian Territories.

In each country, research engaged officials and other stakeholders. Conclusions and recommendations were also fed back into policy processes through briefs and numerous dialogue meetings. In addition, the WKOP team conducted several joint missions and major events. In October 2005, partners from Guatemala, Norway, Palestine and Sri Lanka joined NSI in a series of policy engagement meetings with policy makers, IDRC and civil society organizations in Ottawa. In November 2005, NSI and CEDE co-hosted an international conference in Vilankulo, Mozambique. The conference brought together over 65 participants from close to 15 different countries to discuss the WKOP research and policy recommendations pertaining to the challenges of converting short-term peacebuilding successes into sustainable peacebuilding over the long term.On the heels of that conference, partners from NSI, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Sri Lanka joined Norwegian partners in policy dialogue meetings with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NORAD. In October 2006, NSI and partners from Guatemala, Mozambique and Norway presented their work at policy meetings organized by the Centro de Invetigación para la Paz (CIP) in Madrid. CIP translated and published four WKOP papers in Spanish, extending the project’s reach in Europe and Latin America.

The project was completed in December 2006 and the final book, bringing together all the studies from the project, will be published in 2007.

To read project reports:

 Descentralización y construcción de una paz sostenible en Mozambique: recomponer las piezas de nuevo (only available in Spanish)
by Eduardo J. Sitoe and Carolina Hunguana [261k]

 El papel del desarrollo rural en la consolidación de la paz. El caso de Afganistán (only available in Spanish)
by Omar Zakhilwal and Jane Murphy Thomas [270k]

 ¿Estabilización o paz sostenible? ¿Qué clase de paz es posible después del 11-S? (only available in Spanish)
by Stephen Baranyi [281k]

 Guatemala – What kind of Peace is Possible? (only available in Spanish) [596k]

 Guatemala - Among the Possible Peace or the Desirable Peace (only available in Spanish) [500k]

 Democratic decentralization is needed to keep the Mozambican miracle still alive by Dr. Eduardo Sitoe and Carolina Hunguana [112k]

 Decentralisation and sustainable peace-building in Mozambique: Bringing the elements together again by Dr. Eduardo Sitoe and Carolina Hunguana[80k]

 Toward a more open and inclusive political system: A return to a presidential system is a return to instability by Khalil Shikaki and Jihad Harb [72k]

 Transition from civil war to peace: Challenges for peace-building in Sri Lanka by Jayadeva Uyangoda (Policy Brief) [40k]

 Transition from Civil War to Peace: Challenges of Peace building in Sri Lanka by Jayadeva Uyangoda (Working Paper) [132k]

 Fragile States and Sustainable Peacebuilding by Stephen Baranyi [996k]

 What kind of peace is possible in the post-9/11 era? National agency, transnational coalitions and the challenges of sustainable peace by Stephen Baranyi [112k]