Some good news in evidence for peacebuilding

In 2014 when I was working at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) we formed a joint initiative with the World Bank and Innovations for Poverty Action to conduct a scoping review on evidence for peacebuilding, which we called E4P. This work included a supply side analysis in the form of an evidence gap map and a demand side analysis combining a stakeholder survey, extensive stakeholder engagement, and a portfolio review that compiled and analyzed dozens of program documents. One primary and unsurprising finding from the evidence gap map was simply the dearth of good evidence about peacebuilding interventions. We only found 78 impact evaluations, and of those a notable number of studies were of psychosocial treatment programs for victims.

Five years later the landscape is changing. I summarize here two new evidence review projects related to peacebuilding. The first is a report from the Alliance for Peacebuilding called “Violence Reduction Subsector Review & Evidence Evaluation”. The second is a 3ie update and expansion of the E4P evidence gap map called “Building Peaceful Societies”.