Economic Assistance to Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Community-Based Projects in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties: Challenges, Opportunities and Evolution

Skarlato, Olga; Byrne, Seán; Ahmed, Kawser; Karari, Peter

doi:10.1007/s10767-015-9209-z

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…More recent scholarship on EU support for peacebuilding in NI concluded that “the administrative models adopted for INTERREG and PEACE I and II did not achieve the results hoped for by the EU Commission in those years” (Lagana, 2021, p. 179). Evaluation of PEACE III found ‘mixed perceptions among funding recipients regarding the effectiveness and the implications of peacebuilding projects’ and called for future quantitative and qualitative analysis “which cover both the tangible and intangible results achieved by these initiatives” (Skarlato et al, 2016, pp. 176–177).…”

Section: The Eu Peace Program In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

EU PEACE funding: The policy implementation deficit

Knox

O’Connor

Ketola

et al. 2023

European Policy Analysis

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This article explores the intersection of policy implementation, conflict/peacebuilding, and the role of the EU PEACE program in Northern Ireland (NI). Conflict societies see a great investment of external funds, attempting to promote conflict resolution. Specifically, this article analyses the fourth wave of such funding in NI to examine why the EU PEACE program has not fully brought about its intended policy outcomes. Using Matland's conflict‐ambiguity model of policy implementation, we identify how EU funds can be skewed to support local political interests. Simultaneously, the EU PEACE program continues to adhere to strict implementation criteria that makes little sense given the local context. Therefore, contrary to its objectives, the implementation of EU funding can compound rather than ameliorate divisions in postconflict NI. Instead of prescribing strict implementation criteria, EU policy could focus on improving the administrative capacity and discretion of local administration in devising locally relevant implementation strategies.

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Section: The Eu Peace Program In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

EU PEACE funding: The policy implementation deficit

Knox

O’Connor

Ketola

et al. 2023

European Policy Analysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…trade). As highlighted in our introduction, between 1987–2019, international funding programs disbursed over 2 billion Euro to build peace in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties of the Republic of Ireland (Skarlato et al 2016).…”

Section: Economic Aid and Peacebuilding In Northern Irelandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Peace in Northern Ireland: Hopes for the Future

2022

Self Cite

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Since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, over 2 billion Euros have been poured into Northern Ireland for peacebuilding. This article presents the hopes and experiences of workers in CSOs funded by either or both funds, development officers, and civil servants employed by the funders. They confirm that peacebuilding and reconciliation projects funded by the European Union (EU) Peace and Reconciliation Fund and the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) have positively contributed to the peace process in Northern Ireland. Civil Society Organizational (CSO) projects support peacebuilding, reconciliation, and greater cooperation between the Protestant and Catholic communities. This study explored the perceptions of 120 respondents working with these funders. They indicated that designated peacebuilding funding promotes bridging, needs to be balanced, and is important to building the peace dividend and that local knowledge, practices, and skillsets should be built into the funding process. The politics of post-Brexit Northern Ireland means that understanding how to best fund peacebuilding and reconciliation is critical. At time of writing, tensions have risen.

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“…Due to low predictability, chaotic dynamics are not easily reconciled with the conventional cause-effect relationships, concepts and paradigms that contribute to our understanding of systems’ functioning 1–3 . For example, urbanistics and architecture 4 , peacebuilding processes 5 , conflict resolution theories and community development practices 6 , as well as manifestation of democracy as a societal model that represents myriads of related individuals and social groups with conflicting viewpoints, ideas and demands 7 generate interactions with wildly oscillating effects. The processes in natural biological systems are likewise complex, nonlinear and dynamical, and their outcomes can demonstrate chaotic behaviour 8–11 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chaos theory discloses triggers and drivers of plankton dynamics in stable environment

Telesh

Schubert

Joehnk

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Despite the enticing discoveries of chaos in nature, triggers and drivers of this phenomenon remain a classical enigma which needs irrefutable empirical evidence. Here we analyze results of the yearlong replicated mesocosm experiment with multi-species plankton community that allowed revealing signs of chaos at different trophic levels in strictly controlled abiotic environment. In mesocosms without external stressors, we observed the “paradox of chaos” when biotic interactions (internal drivers) were acting as generators of internal abiotic triggers of complex plankton dynamics. Chaos was registered as episodes that vanished unpredictably or were substituted by complex behaviour of other candidates when longer time series were considered. Remarkably, episodes of chaos were detected even in the most abiotically stable conditions. We developed the Integral Chaos Indicator to validate the results of the Lyapunov exponent analysis. These findings are essential for modelling and forecasting behaviour of a variety of natural and other global systems.

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Economic Assistance to Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Community-Based Projects in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties: Challenges, Opportunities and Evolution

Cited by 13 publications

References 40 publications

EU PEACE funding: The policy implementation deficit

EU PEACE funding: The policy implementation deficit

Building Peace in Northern Ireland: Hopes for the Future

Chaos theory discloses triggers and drivers of plankton dynamics in stable environment

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