CIAO DATE: 05/05

Peace-building and Development in Guatemala and Northern Ireland

Abstract

Guatemala and Northern Ireland signed historic peace accords in 1996 and 1998 respectively. This paper, part of a longer term project comparing lessons learned from implementation in the two cases, focuses especially on Guatemala, making some middle range peace/development policy recommendations for that country's recently elected government and civil society organizations. Despite very different economic development levels, both countries are divided, find peace implementation difficult, and are heavily influenced by outside actors - including their own diaspora. Guatemala is deeply divided internally along class, race and ethnic lines, with more than 15% of its population in the U.S. (and close affinity with Mayan peoples who live across the Mexican border). Ireland too is divided along religious and ethnic lines, a border crosses the island. The North is linked politically to the United Kingdom, with social ties to emigrant populations there, in the south and in the United States. Guatemala, like its Central American neighbor El Salvador, embarked on peace-building with UN oversight, while the Northern Irish had United Kingdom and Irish Republic support for making peace. (Without pre-judging an eventual political resolution of the two Irelands, I'll refer to both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, since that peace process, like Guatemala's, necessarily transcends borders). When compared to Northern Ireland, Guatemalan religious differences are minor, and religious leaders, Catholic, Protestant and Mayan played key roles in the peace process. Emigration figures large in both settings, as do many centuries of colonial or imperial domination. Both countries have struggled with post-accord violence which has reached alarming levels in Guatemala. Peace and development are inseparable - hence I emphasize growth with equity issues that are cause and consequence of both conflicts.

The UNDP released its Human Development Report for 2004, placing Guatemala in the 121st place, two places lower than in 2002 when income levels were lower than in 1980 (UNDP, Human Development Report, 2002 and 2004). Great Britain ranked #13, the Irish Republic ranked #18, and Northern Ireland (which is subsumed within Great Britain), would fit just above #13. Northern Ireland, more developed, wealthy and educated, contrasts with Guatemala and shows that different peace-building priorities prevail where development is more equitable. The extraordinary concentration of wealth and conspicuous consumption evident in zones of the Guatemalan capital make it hard to believe that its ranking could come out so low, though attention to news reports of starvation in drought affected communities of eastern Guatemala during the past two years might have caused greater awareness. The concentration of wealth in this country is matched only by Brazil in the Americas.

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