Panel at the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development: Local voices for lasting peace and inclusive state building
International IDEA has organized a panel in the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development titled “Local voices for lasting peace and inclusive state building.”
The decline of international cooperation is associated with a crisis of multilateralism whereby global standards no longer function as universal benchmarks and with external engagement becoming more diverse and increasingly transactional. In the field of peace mediation, this shift intersects with record levels of violence and rising conflict fragmentation, leading to fewer comprehensive agreements and an expansion of narrow, top-down negotiation processes that often fail to address root causes or reflect the perspectives of affected communities.
In such contexts, authorities ending protracted conflicts frequently leverage the strategic interests of powerful actors to consolidate executive power and unilaterally lead transitions. Weak accountability coexists with shrinking civic space and the marginalisation of civil society and opposition actors.
The panel examines how local civil society organisations and opposition movements pursue peace- and state-building from below, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Syria and Venezuela, exploring how they navigate constrained environments, engage with partial or exclusionary processes, and shape more inclusive, legitimate and sustainable peace trajectories.
Speakers:
- Christopher Burnett-Cargill, Senior Policy Specialist for Peace and Security, SIDA
- Christine Bell, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Edinburgh, and Executive Director and Principal Investigator of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep)
- Madame Fifi, National spokeswoman, Rien Sans Les Femmes (Nothing without Women) movement, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Razan Brghol, Dawlaty Foundation Syria
- Benigno Alarcón-Deza, Founder of the Centre for Political Studies (UCAB), Venezuela
