Empowerment of local peacebuilding actors in a post-conflict landscape. A case study of Colombia

Globally there is a growing interest in building sustainable peace and preventing countries to relapse into conflict, which requires adequate addressing of country-specific cases. From the global peacebuilding agenda to academic scholars and independent organizations, there is a trend towards supporting local contexts to ensure stable peace. Colombia was chosen as the case of investigation due to recent political developments in the country. Currently it finds itself in the implementation of the 2016 signed peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). As a main argument, I claim that local Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are essential actors in the Colombian peacebuilding process but lack inclusion and attention. Therefore, this study assesses the post-conflict landscape aiming to shed light on the needs and challenges of local NGOs, to become more empowered peacebuilding agents. Through the conduction of semi-structured interviews and the application of thematic analysis, novel and valuable insights into more sustainable peacebuilding are offered, by focusing on the needs of local actors. The main challenges identified within this research are the missing collaboration between civil society actors to establish a shared peacebuilding agenda and insufficient recognition and financial support by the government and international donors. Together with prevailing mistrust, they keep the NGOs from being fully empowered peacebuilding agents. However, despite the challenges, the NGOs proved high potential in peacebuilding, ranging from long-term experience to commitment and persistence. Hence, the results confirm the assumption that NGOs significantly contribute to peacebuilding in Colombia and could do so even more if the identified challenges are resolved.