Joint Seminar: The Progress of the World Bank Group’s Fragility, Conflict, Violence Strategy and Collaboration with JICA

Soukeyna Kane, director of the FCV Group of the World Bank gave a keynote speech outlining the size and evolution of the problem of conflict. She observed that not only have the number of conflicts increased but they have also become more protracted. Conflict duration has nearly doubled, the average in 1990 was 16 years but by 2020 it was over 30 years, with reignited conflicts more common than new ones.

Next, Murotani Ryutaro, senior director and head of the Office for Peacebuilding, Governance and Peacebuilding Department at JICA, outlined JICA’s three approaches to FCV problems: building resilient states and societies to prevent conflicts; focusing on local governments and their capacity development and trust building with local communities; and promoting the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus. As for the HDP nexus, he provided an example from Uganda, which maintains an open-door policy for refugees. In his comments we can see how JICA’s cooperation for capacity development for rice cultivation in Uganda was extended to both locals and refugees, benefiting both. The training provided to refugees will enable them not to rely only on humanitarian aid but become self-reliant and thus to improve their lives and livelihood. He also expressed his hope to partner with the World Bank on FCV challenges through shared assessment and operational collaboration in certain fragile contexts.

Matsunaga Hideki, director general, the Middle East and Europe Department at JICA, then gave an overview of the ongoing FCV problems in Ukraine. About 7.9 million refugees from Ukraine are recorded so far across Europe, with an additional 6 million people internally displaced across Ukraine. JICA in partnership with the World Bank have been supporting Ukraine with an Emergency Economic Recovery Development Policy Loan. He also touched on the FCV landscape of the Middle East, taking up the ongoing Syrian Crisis that has generated 6.7 million internally displaced people and 6.6 million refugees. He then went on to discuss the specifics of collaboration in the World Bank-JICA Partnership through programs like the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF).

Muto Ako, executive senior research fellow at the JICA Ogata Research Institute, introduced the Institute’s research project“Contextualizing International Cooperation for Sustaining Peace: Adaptive Peacebuilding Pathways,” which examines contemporary forms of international cooperation for conflict resolution and peacebuilding. It explores a new approach to build sustaining peace, the adaptive peacebuilding approach. The premise of the adaptive approach is that for peace to be self-sustaining, resilient social institutions that promote and sustain peace must emerge from within a society. International actors can support mediation and peacebuilding and promote an inductive process that maximizes local capacity. The outcome of this research project has resulted in two academic books, “Adaptive Mediation and Conflict Resolution: Peace-making in Colombia, Mozambique, the Philippines, and Syria,” and “Adaptive Peacebuilding: A New Approach to Sustaining Peace in the 21st Century.”

Rui Saraiva, research fellow at the JICA Ogata Research Institute, presented a case study on evolving peacebuilding approaches in Mozambique. He noted that adaptive approaches to mediation and peacebuilding have had more positive outcomes than earlier attempts driven by externally imposed concepts. Peace needs to emerge from within to be self-sustainable and peacebuilding programs should stimulate self-organization and resilience. Localized international non-governmental organizations such as the Community of Sant’Egidio and the Aga Khan Development Network provide examples of how international peacebuilders can contribute to sustaining peace through adaptive approaches. This focus is part of a more holistic approach to peacebuilding.