Financial Times

New study stresses urgency of upholding ceasefire by all parties
A top international study released last week has stressed the necessity for ceasefire arrangements to be upheld and respected by all parties including the government and the LTTE and to reflect political realities on the ground.
Senior executives at The World Bank, The Asia Foundation, and the governments of the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK described a new study, released on Tuesday, as “a seminal study on the relationship between aid, conflict and peace building in Sri Lanka”.

The independent study, commissioned by the five agencies, was launched as new hopes for peace surfaced last week with the endorsement of revived negotiations in Geneva this month.

“The launch event sees the bringing together of key national and international policy makers, from across the divide, to discuss and debate its findings and recommendations at a half-day event in Colombo,” a statement from the sponsors of the study said.

It said that in responding to the conclusions of the study, the five commissioning agencies agree that a mix and balance of diplomatic, political, development, security and economic measures is needed to create and support an enabling environment for peace. “The agencies hope the study will serve as a principal source of information for the wider donor community as they create and adapt programmes to support development in a peaceful post-tsunami Sri Lanka.”

It was undertaken by a team of prominent independent consultants – Jonathan Goodhand and Bart Klem with Dilrukshi Fonseka, S. I. Keethaponcalan, and Shonali Sardesai – and aimed at three things:

-- provide an analysis of the structures and dynamics of conflict and peace in Sri Lanka since 2000

-- examine how international engagement has interacted with conflict and peace dynamics - with a particular focus on aid donors, and try to identify how the strategies and approaches of international donors can best engage with and help strengthen domestic peace building efforts.

The study suggests that there are a number of overarching principles for international engagement in peacemaking and peace building in Sri Lanka.
On political commitment and long-term engagement, it said international actors need to keep their nerve and remain engaged for the long-term in one form or another.

On shared analysis, the study urged the need to move from the current state of “pockets” of expertise, and fragmented knowledge to developing greater shared and more disaggregated forms of analysis.

Discussing ‘transformative approach’, it said at times international actors appear to have lost sight of tackling the underlying causes of the conflict due to short-term pragmatic imperatives. A transformative perspective has to be incorporated into the thinking and strategies of all international actors, whether they are involved in tsunami aid, track one negotiations or development projects.

On the key question of inclusivity, the researchers said there is a need to be thinking more carefully about inter and intra-group divisions between leaders and constituencies. This may involve widening out civil society participation, focusing more on the mid-level actors, or strengthening activities at the regional and local level.

Regarding conditionality, the recommendation is that debate should now shift toward thinking about positive conditions on aid and gaining influence through engagement. It reports that the threat of withholding aid in an "over-aided" environment will have very little effect.

“To address the consequences of conflict, it is proposed that donors should substantially scale up assistance to the North-East to build a visible peace dividend, helping to meet immediate humanitarian needs and boost confidence in the peace process,” it said adding that donors should do more to address the underlying causes of conflict, particularly in the south by working in a conflict sensitive way on areas like governance, economic reform, and poverty.

Back to Business