Peace and Good Governance

Peace and Good Governance

Conflict arises when weak sociopolitical, economic, and ecological systems break down. These breakdowns almost always result from poor governance: unaccountable or unresponsive institutions, inequitable access to services and resources, a lack of inclusive participation in decision-making processes, and low civil society capacity to address these challenges.

Mercy Corps works through programs, partnership, and influence to support communities to prevent, manage, and transform violent conflict over time. Our efforts aim to reduce violence and address drivers of conflict to allow development outcomes to make lasting impact. Even while addressing immediate needs, we lay the foundation for long-term stability and sustained peace. Our ‘do no harm’ approaches intentionally avoid worsening conflict while strengthening connections and cohesion among communities and groups in conflict. At the community level, our resilience approach centers on advancing sustainable peace by supporting local efforts to reduce violence and create more inclusive governance systems. We elevate locally-led collective action among civil society, government, community members, and formal and informal leaders and groups. Specifically, we focus on organizations led by or serving women, youth, or other systemically marginalized populations. We also work at the regional and national levels to help reduce barriers to participation, address conflict drivers, and contribute to a conducive environment for peace and good governance.

In Lebanon we focus on Transforming Norms and Behaviors for Good Governance: Behavior change approaches prevent the regression of democratic norms and foster inclusive governance. Sustained peace and good governance require positive and constructive engagement from both decision makers and those they represent. We help strengthen norms, expectations, and experiences with participatory, accountable, and responsive governance at municipal level and we contribute to reduced conflicts by building the capacity of local mediators from the community. We focus specifically on increasing the meaningful inclusion of women, young people, and marginalized groups in decision making and governance processes.

To learn more about our Governance programming, please visit our IJMAA programme.