The war guerilla, obsessed with the goal of victory through force, acts strategically.  Using limited resources to greatest effect, he or she moves quickly to attack targets most likey to weaken the enemy in ways and at points consistent with achieving the long-term goal.  The war guerilla may be invisible, often working with Collaborators in the general population.  The war guerilla must show adaptability, flexibility, have a sense of urgency when necessary and be able to react with immediacy.  And the war guerilla is tenacious, often passing the torch from father to son and from mother to daughter, until the mission is achieved.

In a likewise manner the “Peace Guerilla” wages peace. 

DR BEN HOFFMAN, PEACE GUERILLA HANDBOOK

The Need

  • An estimated 100 civilians a day, including women and children, are killed in violent conflict
  • Violent conflict directly contributed to the death of approximately 29.4 million civilians between 1990 and 2017
  • Currently, humanity is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record, including 26.3 million refugees, 45.7 million asylum-seekers and 45.7 million internally displaced persons.
  • In 2019 alone, the economic impact of violence was $14.4 trillion. This is equivalent to 10.5 per cent of global GDP.
  • A two per cent reduction in the impact of violence is roughly equivalent to all overseas development aid (ODA) in 2019 and a ten per cent reduction is the equivalent of adding three new economies the size of Norway, Ireland and Belgium.

The Gap

  • If peace agreements are successfully implemented, their success rate is poor.
  • Humanitarian and peacebuilding organizations are limited by “mandate traps” not allowing for a holistic “whole of problem” approach.
  • Each conflict is different and requires a flexible and customized approach.
  • There is a lack of coordination of efforts.
  • There are misplaced resources on conflict resolution opposed to the reduction of violence

The Peace Guerilla Approach

The Peace Guerilla Project (PGP), addresses gaps and insufficiencies of peacebuilding efforts by using a flexible, responsive, “whole of problem” approach. 

The peace guerilla wages peace with Collaborators to target actions at the grassroots, national, regional and international levels to reduce immediate, intermediate and long-term vulnerabilities to violence and to build the social, political and economic capacity for sustainable peace.  (Peace Guerilla Handbook, Dr. Ben Hoffman)

Some key attributes of the Peace Guerilla Project approach to achieve meaningful impact include:

Flexibility & Responsiveness:

  • No mandate. The PGP doesn’t operate through a defined mandate.  This allows the PGP to avoid mandate traps, remain flexible and responsive to build customized interventions.
  • Operationally light. For flexibility and responsiveness, the PGP doesn’t hold local headquarters and is housed within the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation.
  • Privately Funded. The PGP primarily relies on private funding to not operate within the confines of prescribed funding requirements and for the ability to inject cash quickly into high-crisis situations.

Catalytic Whole-of-problem Approach:

  • The PGP is catalytic. Working vertically and across sectors, the PGP acts as a catalyst to connect the dots, creating a holistic, concerted approach, among all actors.
  • Locally Led Initiatives. Whenever possible, the PGP believes in locally-led initiatives.

Through capacity-building of local leaders, and local ownership of the process, the PGP strives to leave a robust and sustainable peace footprint.   

Targeting Violence:

Conflict and violence are not the same; conflict can be a symptom of violence. Violence has three forms:

Direct:  an action causing harm (physical or psychological) performed directly by an actor (i.e. family violence; terrorism).

Structural: a social structure or institution preventing an individual or group to meet their basic needs (i.e. sexism; racism).  

Cultural: a cultural aspect that legitimizes direct or structural violence (i.e. ideologies)

The PGP’s goal is to prevent organized violence while allowing room for the non-violent expression and resolution of conflict.  A focus on violence provides the following benefits:

  • Reduces suffering.
  • Helps set priorities and generates a proactive approach
  • Sharpens diagnostics
  • Helps measure success

The PGP targets the actors and other factors that are a form of direct, structural, or cultural violence.