Chris Underwood's Blog
Saturday, 26 February 2022
Russia, Ukraine and the future
Saturday, 11 September 2021
9/11 & Hope
So we all have a story of where we were. In my case sat agog inside my office reception in Farringdon, London. Crowds outside peering in at our large screen on the wall, broadcasting what we knew even then was history. The revolution was in the end televised. “Go home” said our manager “it’ll be us next”.
I was 25. Working out what I
wanted to do with my life. For much of the next two decades I spent in the
peacebuilding world. Peace, it seemed to me, was what we needed. The world at
large had other ideas. Or did it?
Just as much of the world’s
attention is understandably focused on Afghanistan, and the story of Iraq, Syria
and terror attacks; I find optimism and hope in some of what I’ve had the privilege
to see in the intervening years. Of individuals capable of finding it within
themselves to forgive, to reach out and to build futures with those who had
themselves often actively tried to kill them.
Like Grace, in Rwanda. She’d
hidden in her family’s kitchen cupboard while her family were slaughtered by
the Interahamwe militia in 1994. Fifteen years on she was establishing a new
business with a man from the tribe and village who’d perpetrated that killing.
Like the old woman sitting under
a tree in Western Nepal, at the end of her garden. Where she’d last seen her
daughter kidnapped by armed Maoists during the civil war in 2004. Five years on
she was still sitting under that tree. She knew she’d never see her daughter
again. But she’d become a peacemaker to whom people would come to see,
mediating disputes.
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Teacher John's house |
Like Teacher John in Turkana, NW
Kenya. A harsh, arid place racked by armed violence carried out with impunity,
particularly against girls. John spoke four languages and could have lived
comfortably. Instead he lived in a mud hut and invested his money in a new
school building so that girls could live while they studied, so they wouldn’t
be at risk by journeying to school. He and his wife must have thought of what
they were sacrificing as they used hot coals at the door by night to keep out
the snakes.
Or like the young women from
Herat, Afghanistan, who proudly presented plans for their villages as part of a
governance programme designed to build stability and service delivery. Confidently
describing the lack of trust anybody felt in the programme but determined to
try to build a better future for the men, women, girls and boys of that beautiful
part of Afghanistan.
These are people that represent the best of humanity. Their strengths and committment are beyond what most of us posess. And if we are to move collectively on from where our world finds itself now, then we need to find and support these individuals. Who quietly work in often remote places, overcoming psychological trauma and material hardship in the hope for a better future for us all. They, I hope, are the future now.
Thursday, 31 December 2020
Building back better: a dose of humility
Covid has been a sobering experience, revealing the frailties of our social fabric and laying waste to the most vulnerable among us. Without engaging in a counsel of despair, I think one of the lessons for us is that to overly rely on the State to guide human behaviour simply won't work. It may also be the case that the social frameworks that were in place before, are perhaps not with us any longer. And that part of our building back better in the West might involve re-learning those aspects of social control that underpin our responsibilities to each other, and the resilience to respond to crisis, from parts of the World where they remain strong.
The problem
To share an anecdotal experience. This afternoon I stood in a supermarket and observed an elderly man standing with a basket of food, waiting for a checkout. Around him bustled shop workers, many without masks, and several shouting to their colleagues. Shoppers, including a young man with no mask, brushed physically past the elderly gentleman, rolling their eyes because he was in their way. And throughout the store, while the majority were wearing masks, many repeatedly removed them and showed no inclination to engage in distancing of any kind. Earlier today an intensive care consultant described such people as having “blood on their hands”. He’d seen the inevitable result of the behaviour I’d just witnessed in the ICU wards.
So what’s going on? Thoughtlessness or a lack of something intangible, that might otherwise have altered behaviour?
I can’t help thinking of the stories I grew up with, of stoicism and communal support withstanding the onslaught of the Blitz. The images of St Pauls’ Cathedral, of newly homeless women making tea and others were echoed by my own grandparents in their own stories from that time. But I also think of some of the communities it’s been my privilege to work among during my own lifetime. In Turkana, Nepal, Afghanistan and elsewhere where communities have run their own affairs in the absence of a strong State and done so in a manner which would make the sort of behaviour I saw in the supermarket, and that we see in beach parties and other breaches highly unlikely. These are also places where the concept of 'positive deviance' often applies - where communities themselves have developed ways of dealing with challenges by innovating their own norms; be that cultivating land or looking after the elderly. No role for the State involved, nor for that matter international donors. Just ask Amina, from Dar es Salaam.
Building back better?
It’s fair to say that the governance challenges witnessed in the West during the last few years undermine the idea that others should simply adopt our model of managing their affairs unquestioningly. There are other models out there and no doubt their relative merits will be hotly contested. But to me, that’s only part of the picture anyway.
We in the West will also do well to consider what we might want to learn from societies who have not relied on the State at all, be that either an authoritarian or liberal version, and have managed their affairs based on behaviours that do not encourage individualism, and the lack of empathy or responsibility that can entail, and which we have witnessed a great deal of throughout this pandemic with disastrous results. These are societies who have often managed to hang together in the face of challenges way greater than Covid, including armed conflict. Building back better will in my view need to involve a large helping of humility, and a willingness to learn from others. The vulnerable old man with his shopping basket deserved a great deal more care from those around him than he received.
Sunday, 5 April 2020
Covid-19: peace positive?
C19 will change the world, but are there positives for peace and stability that might emerge from the carnage, and how might these be supported? Here are some emerging thoughts on how this, the pre-eminent shared challenge of us all, might just unlock conflict systems that have appeared intractable for generations.
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AMISOM |
A new economy
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Taliban anti-coronavirus drive in NE Afghanistan. New form of legitimacy? (unclear how machine gun helps v Covid) |
Wednesday, 8 January 2020
Infinity and beyond: Governance in fragile states
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Building State Capability |
Monday, 23 December 2019
Peace in the Triple Nexus: a response
“HDP programmes tend to work from different departure points. For humanitarians this can broadly be characterised as saving lives; for peacebuilding, as stability and security; and for development as opportunities for addressing poverty”.
“Peacebuilding in most of its forms is a political enterprise”
“They could be viewed as a spectrum with the humanitarian-peace nexus at the lower end with a minimum expectation of complementarity; the development-peace nexus in the middle; and the more established and less contentious humanitarian-development nexus at the higher end between collaboration and coherence”.
Tuesday, 3 December 2019
Innovative finance, conflict, ... and peace?
“The intent was to use financial institutions to further economic development and prosperity and create global stability – the ultimate public good. In other words: economic development for stability; just what is needed today”.
“…that would bring together investors with a multi-disciplinary community of practice dedicated to enhancing investment in fragile countries”.