As we pursue our collective goal of global peace, we must keep these two principles always in mind, seeking not only to eradicate conflict, but also to establish a more trusting and inclusive world community, in which each and every individual is valued and respected. Inclusive peace processes are key to ending violent conflict. At the same time, peace processes can be critically undermined by societal fragmentation, and the perceived or actual exclusion of certain groups from peace negotiations.
On the other hand, a seemingly precarious peace agreement may be fundamentally strengthened by attempts to “knit together” the “frayed fabric” of a society damaged by internal or external conflict. The task of maintaining peace falls, ultimately, to the young, and therefore the young and old, men and women, must be included in the process of establishing peace. All peace processes would do well to ensuring that no voices are marginalized in the gradual movement towards a more harmonious, tolerant and conflict-free society.
Peacebuilders need to aim at achieving a clear goal: greater impact from collective efforts toward peace. That is, even if peace practitioners improve the effectiveness of their individual programmatic actions, collectively they may not achieve significant impacts at a systemic level, which must involve changing the fundamental causes of conflict and the cycles of violence and injustice that sustain it. Hence the need for a framework for collective impact.
The underlying premise of collective impact is that increased coherent action and mutual support by multiple dedicated actors that can create effective synergies to accelerate and sustain progress towards durable peace. This is not to suggest that collective impact efforts are the only means for achieving durable peace. Certainly, we have seen, for many years, that many attempts to make progress do eventually succeed, even if they are sometimes chaotic, even disorganized.
The idea is, rather, that progress can be more efficient, faster, and perhaps more sustained, if individuals and organizations dedicated to peace, work together more self-consciously and deliberately. Despite the needed investment of organizational time and resources, the costs of continued conflict and violence are too high to depend on processes that creep slowly towards peace or stumble upon it accidentally. Harnessing the collective resources, energy, and imagination of multiple peace actors has the potential for gaining greater coherence and impact in the search for peace.
This is intended for a broad audience, including a wide range of civil society organizations, government and intergovernmental entities, donors, and, potentially, the business community. Collective impact efforts also represent a wide range of forms and structures; the most common include networks, consortia, coalitions, alliances, and platforms.
Events in the world are simply the result of interactive forces. We can never stress enough the importance of creating focal points of light and peace to neutralize the dark, chaotic currents circulating in space. It is time human beings learned how cosmic forces work. Physics shows us how to calculate the result of two interactive forces, and this law is true not only on the physical plane but also on the psychic plane.
If a few thousand people work sincerely for the good of humanity on the one side, and on the other, billions are concerned only with their own affairs, are selfish, jealous, vengeful, how can you expect good and peace to win over? Just as in physics, events in the world are simply the result of interactive forces.
You might say, “But there are more than a few thousand wishing for the triumph of good!” Yes, but so feebly, so half-heartedly! What they really want is to get up one morning and find peace, abundance and happiness on their doorstep without having to do anything to make it so. Humans wish for peace, that is true, at least a majority does. However, when will humans understand that through their own greed, selfishness, narrow-mindedness and inertia they can only bring about war.
This is how Cosmic Intelligence has ordained things, but human beings constantly work in opposition: they grab everything for themselves and leave nothing for their neighbours. Well, this can last for a little while, but no society has ever survived for long by means of egoism, injustice and cruelty.
Many people spend their time accusing others of fomenting war. They think that in this way they are contributing to world peace. Some blame the rich; others say that the fault lies with bankers or politicians. Believers accuse those who are not of their own particular Faith of fanaticism. Look around you and you will see that everyone thinks that if one could just get rid of something or someone else, peace would reign in the world.
And it is precisely here that everyone is mistaken. Even if mankind managed to get rid of all their armies and all their weapons, the very next day people would find other means of exterminating each other. Peace is something that exists within us; it is an inner state, an inner attitude, and it cannot be established in the world simply by getting rid of externals. First and foremost we have to get rid of the causes of war within us.
For the moment, most people have not yet understood: dazzled by the various means put at their disposal, they take advantage of them without considering whether what they find useful and beneficial for themselves is equally so for others. They use and abuse these means; it is always a matter of who will get here or there first, and they become cruel and inhuman. But this cannot last for long. These same conditions which human beings themselves have created will force them to develop sentiments that are more fraternal.
By Rosaline Obah
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