Bobst Center

This workshop focused on the development of community-corporate partnerships, a small part of the larger issue. 

Common sense suggests that having mineral resources or other valued commodities works to a country’s advantage. Yet the past 30 years have demonstrated just the opposite in most parts of the world. Mineral wealth correlates strongly with an array of pathologies, including destruction of a country’s agricultural export industries, higher levels of corruption, civil war, and political repression. Only a few countries have broken this mold.  

The instructor-practitioner for this workshop is Karen Ballentine, a senior consultant for Fafo, an important Norwegian think tank that does increasing amounts of international work. Previously she was a Program Associate at the International Peace Academy, where she directed research for a multi-year program on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars. From 1994 until 2000, Ms. Ballentine was a Research Associate at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where she undertook a variety of research projects for both the President Emeritus and the Corporation’s grant-making program on Preventing Deadly Conflict. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard from 1996-97 and Research Fellow at the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security.

Managing Mineral Resources Report

There is no peace dividend in many parts of the developing world today precisely because the end of war and security are not synonymous. Without security, investment and trade are highly risky. Effective policing is critical, yet few have started to assemble what practitioners have learned. This workshop assists the United Nations in developing a way to evaluate efforts to build civilian police forces.

The instructor-practitioner for this workshop is Gordon Peake, currently Program Associate on Security and Development at the International Peace Academy. He concentrates on security sector reform. He received his doctorate from St. Antony’s College, Oxford and wrote on the establishment of new police forces in Kosovo and the Palestinian territories. Before joining IPA, he was Research Associate at INCORE/United Nations University in Northern Ireland. He has consulted on police reform issues in Albania, Kosovo, and Indonesia.  

Police Reform Report

One of the most important practical challenges associated with post-conflict reconstruction is the reintegration of ex-combatants into society, especially those who are very young. Case studies suggest that when soldiers are released from the military with limited support or a one-time payment, banditry tends to increase and people remain unwilling to invest or trade because of continued insecurity. World Bank research has helped point to some effective approaches and to some common missteps, but accommodating child soldiers—or even war orphans—remains a challenge. What do we know about strategies that help reintegrate ex-combatants and youth into communities that may not wish for their return? Work with host communities is too often neglected, yet it has shown itself to be a key to success in countries like Uganda.

Reintegration is part of the “DDR” complex—disarmament, demobilization, reintegration. Many of the experts that we have consulted worry that the “reintegration” thinking often lacks sensitivity to differences in underlying contexts and, further, becomes a part of general development aid. Others say that reintegration by definition is linked to long-term investment and training. All experts say we know little about how to balance targeted assistance (to combatants and youth) and community-based reintegration and support.         

The instructor-practitioner for this workshop is Nat Colletta, who currently heads the Reintegration working group of the Stockholm Initiative on DDR. Colletta was founding manager of the World Bank’s post-conflict unit (1998-2001). Before this, he led the Bank’s first involvement in demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, and community social and economic reintegration programs for internally displaced persons and refugees.