CIAO DATE: 05/02

Empowering Local Actors: The UN and Multi-Track Conflict Prevention

Executive Summary

The International Peace Academy convened an international policy workshop in New York on 10 December 2001 in the conference room of Chadbourne and Parke LLP bringing together approximately fifty members of the UN system and civil society representatives from around the world. The purpose of the workshop was to follow up on the June 2001 report of the United Nations Secretary-General on the Prevention of Armed Conflict and address some of the opportunities and challenges involved in working to prevent the outbreak of armed conflict in tandem with relevant local actors.

The conference was designed to extract lessons from three case studies of partnerships between the UN and local actors, and among local actors—more specifically civil society organizations (CSOs)—that could inform future efforts in multi-track prevention where a multiplicity of actors have complementary, and conflicting, mandates and objectives. The lessons informed several normative and operational recommendations that follow at the end of this report.

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