14. May 2021

In our short series on Conflict Sensitive Journalism we first looked at the origins of new journalistic models for covering conflict and compared their approaches and reasoning. In the second and third article we took a closer look at the practical implementation of these ideas and the tools Conflict Sensitive Journalism proposes to journalists covering conflict. Now in this final article I will take a step back again and look at journalism through the lens of democracy and peacebuilding,...

13. May 2021

The first part of our Conflict Sensitive Journalism (CSJ) Toolbox focused on practical and technical elements that distinguish CSJ from traditional conflict reporting. This second part will look at those elements that represent principles behind those tools. All tools are no use as long as journalists don't review the fundamental assumptions that drive their reporting. Let's look at the next set of principles through this lens and go back to some very basic questions: for whom do we make news...

12. May 2021

In the first post of this short series we took a look at the origins of Conflict Sensitive Journalism and how the concept relates to peace journalism and other approaches to reporting on conflict, crisis and war. In this second post we will explore what Conflict Sensitive Journalism requires in practice. What is it that reporters and editors do differently when they choose to report in a conflict sensitive way - and how does this shift in perspective impact on the conflict situation and its...

11. May 2021

Wile our last mini series focused on lobby and advocacy as a powerful tool to strengthen your peacebuilding work, today’s post is the first in a series of articles looking at journalism and its role in conflict settings.

17. September 2020

After having made the case for a strategic lobby and advocacy campaign in part I of this mini series, I walked your through the main steps of any successful campaign in part II. With these two steps safely under out belt, it is now time to look at practical ideas. This week’s post features a wide range of possible activities to be used during your campaign. A treasure chest filled with hands-on advice and plenty of background information.

16. September 2020

In last week’s article I build an argument for lobby and advocacy campaigns to increase the changes of peacebuilding projects to be successful. But not everything that comes dressed as a campaign is a campaign. In order to develop its full potential and lend significant weight to your work, a lobby and advocacy campaign needs to be done right.

15. September 2020

Are you working on peacebuilding and conflict transformation? Are you active in a highly complex environment? Do you often have the feeling that the power balance is not in your favour? That much of your direct peacebuilding and conflict transformation work is barely scratching the surface when it comes to influencing the underlying dynamics? If that is the case then you could benefit from a lobby and advocacy campaign complementing your peacebuilding and conflict transformation work.

17. June 2020

The discussion so far, on power and violence, and power and nonviolence, necessitates that we briefly consider leadership. If we have established that peace work must address power, and must do so non-violently by taking up power itself, then the issues of leadership naturally arise. We can now make a few observations of the kind of leadership that might be effective and appropriate.

06. May 2020

As many of you - especially the ones who follow my disability-related posts - know, I love hiking, being out, and physically active in the hills. And while I am often out there on my own, I also enjoy walking together with my family; i.e. my wife and three kids. And my experiences of preparing for a hike with the family, then set off on a joint journey to hopefully get to the top of a mountain and then safely back down again came in handy when Corona forced me to move all my training offers...

15. April 2020

Following from the last blog post on power and violence, we can start from a shared view that peacebuilding challenges the abuse of power. We have noted that technical implementation of programmes, or the dissemination of information, awareness raising or negotiating an accommodation between two violent opponents may all contribute to peacebuilding, but if they do not address issues of power then they do not go to the source of violence. We also observed that, by contrast, the most prominent...