Peace Building and Community Stabilization
AcoGaps gives due consideration to community stabilization, peacebuilding, and peace consolidation issues – especially for states in transition. It seeks to improve the understanding and skills of policymakers, policy designers, practitioners, and international donors through a comprehensive package of interventions that provide sustainable solutions to critical drivers of conflict including, but not limited to, land; resource distribution; and other social and political dimensions.
AcoGaps program on community stabilization will be implemented around key priority programs such as conflict analysis, the culture of peace, capacity building, conflict transformation, prevention, and mediation. The programs will address underlying causes, prevent relapse, and help communities move towards long term stability and socio-economic development.
AcoGaps will undertake a comprehensive approach that combines security, community stabilization and peacebuilding to address multidimensional causes and main drivers of conflict and violence. In this context, AcoGaps will focus on building trust between communities and state institutions, including the local police. That will be done through innovative initiatives, such as increasing local participation, which is considered critical for strong community stabilization and civilian protection. And innovative interventions are also required to ensure that vulnerable groups – especially women and youth at risk – receive dedicated support and protection from the police.
AcoGaps will play a key role in providing strategic policy advice and technical support towards advancing the peace process and implementation of peace agreements. AcoGaps will provide peacebuilding/stabilization interventions aimed to prevent a relapse into conflict and to mitigate or reduce risk. In this context, programmatic activities include human rights, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), explosive ordinance disposal, community stabilization, arms control, security sector reforms (SSR), rule of law, transitional justice, mediation, constitutional reforms, women rights and child protection issues. In addition to the the above-mentioned activities, electoral related political advisory work and peacebuilding delivery are critical components to address root causes and structural elements that pave the way for a successful transition.