The Changing Landscape of Armed Groups: Doing DDR in New Contexts [1]
Co-Organizers: UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and World Bank Group
Date: Tuesday, 1 May 2018
Time: 10 AM - 12 PM
Venue: UN Headquarters (New York), Conference Room 8
About the event:
A panel discussion on 1 May 2018 will seek to delve into the changing landscape of armed groups and how DDR practitioners are adapting to these developments with flexible context-specific approaches. As peace operations grapple with situations of heightened political and security challenges, DDR practitioners have had to adjust to complex dynamics (e.g. no peace agreement or inclusive political process, transnational criminal networks, rising number of armed non-state actors, and regional armed group dynamics). Practitioners have to navigate through unclear political struggles and deal with legal constraints in contexts where violent extremism is a further challenge. On the ground, they have in some cases combined community-based programming with weapons management, and are engaging both combatants and youth-at-risk of recruitment while providing technical support to political processes at different levels. DDR efforts remain critical across the peace continuum as one of few non-military means in the UN tool box to directly engage members of armed groups.
The session seeks to build on a panel discussion held in Washington during the World Bank Fragility Forum in March 2018 on new approaches in DDR and will focus in particular on how they have been developed and reinforced through key partnerships. The panel will present on lessons learned from the closure of the Transitional Demobilization and Reintegration Programme (TDRP) and the opening of the Global Programme for Reintegration Support (GPRS). Furthermore, panel members will discuss specific contexts where the World Bank and the United Nations are partnering on DDR, especially second generation DDR measures such as Community Violence Reduction. Participants will further address how to reinforce and codify these innovative measures, applying and adapting these along the peace continuum from prevention to sustainable development as part of DDR interventions.
Participants:
Tatiana Carayannis, Director of the Social Science Research Council’s new Understanding Violent Conflict Research Initiative and deputy director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum
Daniel P. Owen, Senior Social Development Specialist and Program Manager, Global Program for Reintegration Support, World Bank
Thomas Kontogeorgos, Chief Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Section, Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations
Elizabeth Kissam, Policy and Planning Officer, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Section, Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations
Please RSVP by Friday, 27 April to
