Traditional approaches to international aid deal with post-conflict risks focusing on external safeguards for peacebuilding, leaving local social enhancers playing a subsidiary role. Trust has long been highlighted as a key factor that can positively affect sustainable peace efforts by reducing intergroup hostility. Surprisingly, most post-conflict studies deal with trust as a dependent variable. Using a cross-sectional multi-method field study in Colombia, we assess the impact of trust on prospective reconciliation in the midst of an ongoing peace process. We find that trust in ex-combatants and in government increases the likelihood of having positive attitudes towards future reconciliation and willingness to support not only the peace process but reconciliation activities after war. We offer evidence supporting the idea that rather than drawing exclusively on economic and military capabilities, investing in local governance infrastructures that promote prosocial behaviour and positive belief management in the pre-reconciliation face offers a complementary alternative to help societies exit civil wars while tackling barriers to peacebuilding efforts in the initial stages of a post-conflict.

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This work explores the results of a creative and art‐based intervention to foster reconciliation in Colombia. The paper presents a novel methodology defined as ‘Art for Reconstruction’, piloted with victims of violence, veterans from armed forces and former members of illegal groups between 2018 and 2019 in Medellín, Colombia. The initiative encouraged trauma healing, reduced intergroup hostility, fostered cooperation and willingness to reconcile among previous enemies. Results show that creative and art‐based approaches, like Kintsugi, are promising to transform citizens' interactions at the micro level. This project presents how art and social engagement facilitate transitions from war to peace and reconciliation.

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ObjectiveThe theory of social constructionism has been consolidated as an appropriate tool for understanding policy design, implementation, and evaluation. However, there is little empirical research about the implications of social construction on policy evaluation. The objective of the article is to contribute to the literature in public policy and gender studies by defining the impact of gender as a social construct and gender mainstreaming in public policy on beneficiaries' evaluation of the policy process.MethodsI conducted a study of the institutional design of Colombia's policy of assistance to victims of civil war and a quantitative analysis, through ordered logit and logistic regression models, to identify how gender mainstreaming and social constructions affect the evaluation of the policy process measured as the satisfaction levels with the process of application to policy assistance.ResultsThe article confirms the hypothesis that positive social constructions‐in this case, the construction of women victims‐reinforced by a strong institutional design make bureaucrats administer the policy differently to specific groups. As expected, women have more levels of satisfaction with the policy process. However, this effect is not significant for other social constructions such as ethnicity and the elderly.ConclusionResearch in this topic should consider the differential effect of certain social constructions on policy evaluation based on how policy design crystallizes symbolic and material messages that benefit some groups.