Prevention and peacebuilding in the context of shrinking space

FriEnt-Briefing 13

The space for civil society activists and organisations is shrinking worldwide. As a consequence of these shrinking and closing civic spaces, civil society engagement for prevention and peacebuilding is also subject to major constraints.

Governments, donors, state and civil society organisations working in the field of international peace and development are finding it increasingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, to engage in cooperation with local civil society partners. German organisations are also facing challenges in their cooperation with international partners.

The analysis on shrinking and closing space has been dominated to a large extent by the politics of human rights and democracy. This Briefing, entitled Prevention and peacebuilding in the context of shrinking space, brings experiences and strategies from peacebuilding and conflict transformation into this discourse. It focuses on linkages and interaction between shrinking space and prevention, conflict transformation and post-conflict situations as a basis for exploring how civil society engagement in these areas can be protected and broadened in scope.