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I want to speak about 
a forgotten conflict.

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It's a conflict that rarely
hits the headlines.

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It happens right here,
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Now, most people outside of Africa
don't know much about the war in Congo,

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so let me give you a couple of key facts.

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The Congolese conflict is the deadliest 
conflict since World War II.

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It has caused almost four million deaths.

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It has destabilized most of Central Africa
for the past 18 years.

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It is the largest ongoing
humanitarian crisis in the world.

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That's why I first went to Congo in 2001.

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I was a young humanitarian aid worker,
and I met this woman who was my age.

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She was called Isabelle.

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Local militias
had attacked Isabelle's village.

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They had killed many men,
raped many women.

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They had looted everything.

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And then they wanted to take Isabelle,

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but her husband stepped in,

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and he said, "No,
please don't take Isabelle.

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Take me instead."

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So he had gone to the forest
with the militias,

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and Isabelle had never seen him again.

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Well, it's because of people
like Isabelle and her husband

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that I have devoted my career
to studying this world

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that we know so little about.

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Although there is one story
about Congo that you may have heard.

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It's a story about minerals and rape.

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Policy statements and media reports

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both usually focus on a primary cause
of violence in Congo --

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the illegal exploitation and trafficking
of natural resources --

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and on the main consequence --

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sexual abuse of women and girls
as a weapon of war.

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So, not that these two issues
aren't important and tragic. They are.

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But today I want to tell you 
a different story.

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I want to tell you a story
that emphasizes a core cause

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of the ongoing conflict.

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Violence in Congo is in large part driven
by local bottom-up conflicts

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that international peace efforts
have failed to help address.

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The story starts from the fact
that not only is Congo notable

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for being the world's worst
ongoing humanitarian crisis,

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but it is also home to some of the largest

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international peacebuilding
efforts in the world.

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Congo hosts the largest

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and most expensive United Nations
peacekeeping mission in the world.

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It was also the site of the first
European-led peacekeeping mission,

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and for its first cases ever,

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the International Criminal Court
chose to prosecute Congolese warlords.

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In 2006, when Congo held the first 
free national elections in its history,

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many observers thought that an end to 
violence in the region had finally come.

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The international community lauded the 
successful organization of these elections

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as finally an example
of successful international intervention

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in a failed state.

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But the eastern provinces

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have continued to face
massive population displacements

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and horrific human rights violations.

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Shortly before I went
back there last summer,

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there was a horrible massacre
in the province of South Kivu.

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Thirty-three people were killed.

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They were mostly women and children,

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and many of them were hacked to death.

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During the past eight years,

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fighting in the eastern provinces
has regularly reignited

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full-scale civil and international war.

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So basically, every time we feel
that we are on the brink of peace,

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the conflict explodes again.

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Why?

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Why have the massive international efforts

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failed to help Congo 
achieve lasting peace and security?

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Well, my answer to this question
revolves around two central observations.

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First, one of the main reasons
for the continuation of violence in Congo

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is fundamentally local --

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and when I say local,

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I really mean at the level
of the individual, the family,

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the clan, the municipality,
the community, the district,

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sometimes the ethnic group.

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For instance, you remember the story
of Isabelle that I told you.

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Well, the reason why militias
had attacked Isabelle's village

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was because they wanted to take the land

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that the villagers needed
to cultivate food and to survive.

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The second central observation
is that international peace efforts

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have failed to help
address local conflicts

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because of the presence
of a dominant peacebuilding culture.

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So what I mean is that

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Western and African diplomats,

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United Nations peacekeepers, donors,

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the staff of most
nongovernmental organizations

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that work with the resolution of conflict,

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they all share a specific way
of seeing the world.

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And I was one of these people,
and I shared this culture,

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so I know all too well how powerful it is.

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Throughout the world,
and throughout conflict zones,

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this common culture shapes
the intervener's understanding

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of the causes of violence

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as something that is primarily located
in the national and international spheres.

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It shapes our understanding
of the path to world peace

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as something again that requires
top-down intervention

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to address national
and international tensions.

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And it shapes our understanding
of the roles of foreign actors

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as engaging in national
and international peace processes.

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Even more importantly,
this common culture

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enables international peacebuilders
to ignore the micro-level tensions

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that often jeopardize
the macro-level settlements.

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So for instance, in Congo,

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because of how they are
socialized and trained,

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United Nations officials,
donors, diplomats,

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the staff of most
nongovernmental organizations,

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they interpret continued fighting
and massacres as a top-down problem.

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To them, the violence they see

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is the consequence of tensions
between President Kabila

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and various national opponents,

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and tensions between Congo,
Rwanda and Uganda.

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In addition, these international 
peacebuilders view local conflicts

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as simply the result
of national and international tensions,

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insufficient state authority,

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and what they call the Congolese people's
so-called inherent penchant for violence.

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The dominant culture
also constructs intervention

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at the national and international levels

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as the only natural and legitimate task
for United Nations staffers and diplomats.

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And it elevates the organization
of general elections,

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which is now a sort of cure-all,

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as the most crucial state
reconstruction mechanism

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over more effective
state-building approaches.

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And that happens not only in Congo
but also in many other conflict zones.

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But let's dig deeper,

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into the other main sources of violence.

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In Congo, continuing violence

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is motivated not only by the national
and international causes

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but also by longstanding
bottom-up agendas

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whose main instigators
are villagers, traditional chiefs,

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community chiefs or ethnic leaders.

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Many conflicts revolve around political,
social and economic stakes

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that are distinctively local.

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For instance, there is
a lot of competition

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at the village or district level

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over who can be chief of village
or chief of territory

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according to traditional law,

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and who can control
the distribution of land

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and the exploitation
of local mining sites.

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This competition often results
in localized fighting,

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for instance in one village or territory,

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and quite frequently,
it escalates into generalized fighting,

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so across a whole province,

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and even at times
into neighboring countries.

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Take the conflict between Congolese 
of Rwandan descent

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and the so-called indigenous 
communities of the Kivus.

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This conflict started in the 1930s
during Belgian colonization,

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when both communities competed
over access to land and to local power.

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Then, in 1960,
after Congolese independence,

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it escalated because each camp
tried to align with national politicians,

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but still to advance their local agendas.

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And then, at the time
of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda,

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these local actors allied
with Congolese and Rwandan armed groups,

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but still advanced their local agendas
in the province of the Kivus.

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And since then, these local disputes
over land and local power

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have fueled violence,

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and they have regularly jeopardized

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the national and
international settlements.

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So we can wonder why
in these circumstances

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the international peacebuilders
have failed to help implement

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local peacebuilding programs.

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And the answer is that
international interveners

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deem the resolution of grassroots conflict

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an unimportant, unfamiliar,
and illegitimate task.

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The very idea of becoming involved
at the local level clashes fundamentally

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with existing cultural norms,

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and it threatens
key organizational interests.

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For instance, the very identity
of the United Nations

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as this macro-level
diplomatic organization

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would be upended
if it were to refocus on local conflicts.

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And the result is that
neither the internal resistance

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to the dominant ways of working

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nor the external shocks

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have managed to convince international
actors that they should reevaluate

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their understanding
of violence and intervention.

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And so far, there have been
only very few exceptions.

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There have been exceptions,
but only very few exceptions,

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to this broad pattern.

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So to wrap up,
the story I just told you

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is a story about how
a dominant peacebuilding culture

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shapes the intervener's understanding
of what the causes of violence are,

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how peace is made,

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and what interventions should accomplish.

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These understandings enable
international peacebuilders

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to ignore the micro-level foundations

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that are so necessary
for sustainable peace.

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The resulting inattention
to local conflicts

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leads to inadequate peacebuilding
in the short term

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and potential war resumption
in the long term.

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And what's fascinating
is that this analysis

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helps us to better understand
many cases of lasting conflict

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and international intervention failures,
in Africa and elsewhere.

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Local conflicts fuel violence
in most war and post-war environments,

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from Afghanistan to Sudan
to Timor-Leste,

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and in the rare cases
where there have been comprehensive,

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bottom-up peacebuilding initiatives,

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these attempts have been successful
at making peace sustainable.

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One of the best examples is the contrast

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between the relatively peaceful
situation in Somaliland,

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which benefited from sustained
grassroots peacebuilding initiatives,

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and the violence prevalent
in the rest of Somalia,

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where peacebuilding
has been mostly top-down.

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And there are several other cases

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in which local, grassroots
conflict resolution

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has made a crucial difference.

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So if we want international
peacebuilding to work,

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in addition to any top-down intervention,

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conflicts must be resolved
from the bottom up.

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And again, it's not that national
and international tensions don't matter.

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They do.

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And it's not that national
and international peacebuilding

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isn't necessary.

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It is.

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Instead, it is that both macro-level
and micro-level peacebuilding are needed

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to make peace sustainable,

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and local nongovernmental organizations,

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local authorities and 
civil society representatives

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should be the main actors
in the bottom-up process.

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So of course, there are obstacles.

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Local actors often lack the funding

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and sometimes the logistical means
and the technical capacity

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to implement effective,
local peacebuilding programs.

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So international actors
should expand their funding and support

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for local conflict resolution.

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As for Congo, what can be done?

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After two decades of conflict
and the deaths of millions,

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it's clear that we need
to change our approach.

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Based on my field research,

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I believe that international
and Congolese actors

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should pay more attention
to the resolution of land conflict

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and the promotion
of inter-community reconciliation.

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So for instance,
in the province of the Kivus,

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the Life and Peace Institute
and its Congolese partners

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have set up inter-community forums

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to discuss the specifics
of local conflicts over land,

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and these forums have found solutions
to help manage the violence.

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That's the kind of program
that is sorely needed

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throughout eastern Congo.

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It's with programs like this

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that we can help people
like Isabelle and her husband.

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So these will not be magic wands,

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but because they take into account
deeply rooted causes of the violence,

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they could definitely be game-changers.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)