CENTER FOR ANTIWAR ACTION * Milesevska 51, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro * Tel/fax +381 11 308 9979, * E-mail [email protected] * Web site: www.caa.org.yu PEACE BY PIECE PEACEBUILDING EXPERIENCE FROM THE LOCAL NGO’S PERSPECTIVE (THE REGIONS OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA) Ruzica Rosandic Natasa Milenkovic Mirjana Kovacevic Translated by Nina Djurdjevic Filipovic Center for Antiwar Action Peace by Piece TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY 6 1. OUR INTENTIONS 8 2. PROCEDURE 11 2.1. Response to the questionnaire 13 3. FINDINGS 15 3.1. Funding organizations / Donors 15 3.2. Types of peace activities 17 3.3. Effectiveness of accomplished 26 actions/projects — Influence on direct beneficiaries/groups in 29 focus — Who were the beneficiaries/groups in 32 focus? — Benefit for local organizations/activists 34 3.4. Problems in cooperation with foreign 36 partners — Could it have been different? 47 3.5. Compromises 48 3.6. The sense of responsibility 49 3.7. Opportunities missed or: What would have been beneficial to do, but was not done? 50 3.8. What do local activists see as their 54 greatest contribution to peace? 4. LESSONS LEARNT 61 ATTACHMENTS 63 2 Center for Antiwar Action Peace by Piece LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Initial list of local peace activists and organizations 13 by location Table 2.2: Response to the questionnaire by location 14 Table 3.1: Geographic distribution of the types of peace 19 activism (in %) ATTACHMENT No. 2: ORIGINAL LIST OF LOCAL PEACE ACTIVISTS 65 AND ORGANIZATIONS IN THE REGION ATTACHMENT No. 3: LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS 71 WHO FILLED OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRE ATTACHMENT No. 4: PARTICIPANTS OF THE JAHORINA MEETING 74 ATTACHMENT No. 6: YEARS OF ESTABLISHMENT OF PEACE 85 ORGANIZATIONS WHICH RESPONDED TO OUR QUESTIONNAIRE 3 Center for Antiwar Action Peace by Piece “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there!” Lewis Carrol 4 Center for Antiwar Action Peace by Piece ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study would not have been possible without the response of numerous peace organizations and activists willing to answer our very demanding questionnaires. We highly appreciate their readiness to participate in this endeavor. Equally merited praise goes to the participants of our meeting at Jahorina. Their comments, suggestions and supplements made this analysis of peace activism in the regions of former Yugoslavia more profound and correct. We are especially thankful to all persons who provided additional time and described their successful peace practices. We would not have been able to work on this project without the help of translators, and minute-takers at the meeting on Jahorina, drivers and accountants. Last, but not least, we would like to thank the funding agency of this project, United States Institute of Peace, on their trust and the resources which made it possible to successfully work. 5 Center for Antiwar Action Peace by Piece SUMMARY Since the beginnings of the recent violent conflicts in former Yugoslavia (1990s) local peace-minded groups have actively tried to prevent and overhaul the consequences of this exhaustive social crisis. Whether they were formed spontaneously or as local branches of international peace agencies, local peace organizations were (and still are) greatly dependant on support from international partners. So, even though various foreign donors place much importance on local peace groups’ contribution to building peace, their assessments are mostly derived from the perspective of someone who is giving support. The experience of those receiving support is greatly neglected. Our intention was to fill in that void. Using a questionnaire and the meeting where in direct interaction important issues related to the experience of local peace workers were reconsidered, we attempted to gain deeper insight into the forms of peace activism in the regions of former Yugoslavia, focusing on the following questions: What is the scope of peacebuilding activities in which the local non governmental organizations (hereinafter NGOs) from the region have been involved? How long they function and with what kinds of support? How they perceive the efficiency of their actions? What contributed to the success of their projects? “Whose” peace was being built? From the perspective of local NGOs, how far do the regional/international funding agencies respect their local partners and believe local people to be capable of building peace? How much they understand the specificities of the local context? In what ways international donors aid the work of local NGOs? To whom are local NGOs truly accountable? We base our analysis on 61 (36%) answers to the questionnaire (out of the initial list of 169 addresses - local peace activists and organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo) and on contributions of 43 participants of the conference dedicated to these issues. 6 Center for Antiwar Action Peace by Piece Even though this analysis, mostly based on qualitative data, cannot guarantee far- reaching generalizations about the nature and effectiveness of peace activism in this region, it offers some insightful answers to the questions that inspired our research. First, our data clearly indicate a very wide, all reaching spectrum of peacebuilding activities undertaken from the very start of the armed conflicts. Aside from the fact of the existence of a truly grand number of funding agencies which sumptuously supported their actions, the data gathered point to the fact that the role of local peace activists was and is far more than just a mere transmission of foreign ideas and projects. Second, it is quite clear that local peace activism depended greatly on foreign help; not only could most of the peace projects not be accomplished without the financial and logistic support of foreign donors, but also the local activists and peace organizations could not have made it through in such numbers, nor could they have worked with the same quality that they achieved. This help is highly appreciated. It is also quite obvious that local peace activists did as much as was in their power to accommodate the forms and ways of work to local needs, norms, culture, values, knowledge and skills of the local populace. If nothing else, the validity of this statement is proven by the fact that the local peace activists feel first of all responsible toward their communities. From the perspective of local activists, the relations with foreign partners were also burdened by numerous, but not unsolvable, problems. In the approach of some foreign donors local activists recognized a lack of knowledge of the local context, over-insistence on form and procedure, a bureaucratic stance toward local activists, and even a lack of readiness to support independence and survival of local peace initiatives. Along with the lack of proper support to sustainability of local peace organizations, the resources were short for broader cooperation and regional networking of local peace groups, and for all other activities beyond the scope of the very action projects, which could have helped the empowerment of the networks themselves as well as creation of a richer base of collective knowledge. Although beset by such pressures, in most cases local peace activists did not agree on bad compromises, but opted for constructive, creative solutions. 7 Center for Antiwar Action Peace by Piece 1. OUR INTENTIONS The tragic disintegration of former Yugoslavia also resulted in the mobilization of peace activists who, even though it may seem modest and inadequately visible 1, tried to react to the beginnings as well as the consequences of this painstaking social crisis. Whether they were established spontaneously or as local branches of international peace agencies, local peace organizations were (and still are) greatly dependant on support from international partners. So, even though various foreign donors2 place much importance on local peace groups’ contribution to building peace, their assessments3 are mostly based from the perspective of someone who is giving support. The experience of those receiving support is greatly neglected. Our intention is to fill in that void. Using a questionnaire and the meeting where in direct interaction important issues related to the experience of local peace activists were reconsidered, we strove do gain deeper insight into the forms of peace activism in the regions of former Yugoslavia. All the time the focus of our attention was on the following questions: · What is the scope of peacebuilding activities in which the local NGOs from the region have been involved? How long have they functioned and with what kinds of support? How they perceive the effectiveness of their actions? What contributed to the success of their projects? · “Whose” peace was being built? Facilitating human security, demilitarization, justice, good governance, accountability, reconciliation and human development should not 1 For example see one of the rare analytical studies of civil activism in Serbia, done by Pavlovic, Vukasin (Ed.). Potisnuto civilno drustvo. Beograd: EKO Centar, 1995. Here the work of peace organizations, as part of the civil movement, is not recognized at all. 2 We will use this term to describe all those from foreign institutions who give help: international non- governmental peace organizations, foreign state and private foundations, and supranational institutions of that type. 3 Several issues of the Committee for Conflict Transformation Support Newsletter were dedicated to the question