Peace after Conflict: A Negotiated Process

It was great meeting Larry Sacks, Chief Development Officer, US International Development Finance Corporation at the Goals House UNGA panel on the topic “Missing Peace: How Sustainable Development Can Foster Lasting Peace”, moderated by Simon Mundy, the Moral Money Editor of the Financial Times.

Larry spoke eloquently of how peace is a complex negotiated political process. He gave examples from his career and his experiences in South America, especially Columbia which has faced several bloody cycles of civil war. The Columbian conflict is more than a half century old and resulted in a massive number of deaths, refugees and extreme instability. The peace process which resulted in the 2016 peace accord that disarmed and demobilized the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) (the largest existing armed group) received a Noble Peace prize for the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018). It took four years of negotiation and was the fourth major attempt with FARC since 1982 to agree on peace. The accord is a 310-page document, facilitated by Cuba and Norway. 

When negotiating peace, Larry emphasized that leadership needs to be informed by the realities on the ground. Setting up a Truth Commission (2018) to understand root causes was much needed for conflict management as there were different narratives and emotions that needed to be addressed when peace is lost - half a million people killed, and 7 million became displaced across these 60 years.

Larry spoke about the gap in addressing root causes of conflict that begins in rural areas.  Larry oversaw a $1.1 billion fund as Mission Director for USAID/Colombia from August 2017 to July 2022 on advancing Colombia's transition from over 50 years of violent conflict to a sustainable and inclusive peace.  For peace reconstruction after conflict – a much need aspect is funding for development projects. He said a just transition system was less about the financial structure but more about mobilizing private capital. In terms of funding – here is an interesting fact, the U.S. private sector invests roughly four dollars for every dollar of U.S. foreign assistance for sustainable development.

Having the private sector involved was important as peace requires a generational shift. What I thought was most insightful was the idea that peace is a process (there is no single step solution) especially after years of conflict.  For example, the accord still has a long way to achieve the goals outlined in the document, but there is hope and this is seen in the fact that Columbia will host COP16 - Biodiversity Conference to be held from 21 October to 1 November 2024.