On the back of this involvement, ACTION was invited to address the United Nations President of the General Assembly at the ‘Thematic debate on peaceful and stable societies’, held in New York on the 24th and 25th of April. Speaking as a discussant to the first panel, exploring the nexus between peace and development, ASC Steering Committee representative Richard Smith spoke about the critical role of relationships in understanding how important the inclusion of peace indicators are to the effectiveness of a global development framework. A video of his speech can be found here, and more information on the debate is available here.http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/68/settingthestage/6esps.shtml

In considering the importance of relationships, the focus must primarily be on the nature of the relationship between the state and its citizens, but also the relationship between social groups within a society, especially those that are marginalised or that feel excluded. This includes the relationship between men and women, and the relationship between those in positions of privilege and those that seek greater access to opportunities.

The relative health of these relationships is central to understanding how peace is not only about the absence of violence but also the presence of indicators that speak to the commitment, ability and capacity of a society to respond to the inevitable tensions that accompany countries that are undergoing processes of transition. Moving from an unequal and repressive past towards a more equitable, more sustainable future that seeks to meet the socio-economic human security needs of all of its citizens will inevitably contain tensions and conflicts that can easily spiral out of control if left unmanaged, but that also hold the key to sustainable forms of change if approached from a conflict transformation perspective.

The clear point was made that the inclusion of peace and security indicators in a Post-2015 Development Framework is about the humanisation of security and not the securitisation of development. At the UN PGA debate ambassadors from several member states expressed a range of concerns regarding the inclusion of peace and security indicators in a Development Agenda. These were focused on issues of conditionality, centered on the worry that peace would be used as a pre-requisite for the disbursement of development aid, on universality regarding whether peace could be defined in a way that was not culturally or contextually specific, and on sovereignty, concerned that peace and security might be used as an opportunity for major powers to interfere in the domestic affairs of sovereign countries. Other nations were also concerned that the Sustainable Development Goals emerging from the Rio plus 20 negotiations were being subverted by the inclusion of additional focus areas that had not formed a central part of the Rio discussions. These concerns and differences of opinion will all be thoroughly discussed in the coming weeks and months as the international negotiation process unfolds.

ACTION also presented a set of reflections to a civil society event following the debate initiated by New York based Global Action to Prevent War and Armed Conflict. Participating in this event has enabled ACTION to significantly extend its international network and will hopefully feed into several opportunities moving forward. Our intention is to deepen our engagement in the Post-2015 Development debate, including efforts to popularize and raise awareness around the Common African Position on Post-2015. The Common African position is available here.