Enduring Responses to War and Disaster: The Environmental Dimensions of Sustained Recovery
Publisher: Wilson Center
Author(s): Ken Conca and Anita van Breda
Date: 2019
Topics: Assessment, Climate Change, Conflict Causes, Conflict Prevention, Disasters, Peace Agreements, Peace and Security Operations
Countries: Afghanistan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Congo (DRC), Cote d'Ivoire, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti
Recognizing the need to address environmental challenges in the wake of war and disaster, American University’s School of International Service and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) joined together to launch the project “Environmental Dimensions of Sustainable Recovery: Learning from Post-Conflict and Disaster Response Experience.” As representatives of a leading conservation NGO (World Wildlife Fund) and a professional graduate school with extensive expertise in environment, development, and conflict resolution (American University’s School of International Service), Anita van Breda and Ken Conca’s partnership helped to conduct a truly cross-organizational, cross-perspective exchange and familiarized them with the challenges and opportunities that occur when working across sectors and organizational cultures. The project brought together individuals from diverse organizations—in conservation, disaster response, and conflict transformation—with relevant forms of experience on the environmental dimensions of relief, recovery, and development. “Enduring Responses to War and Disaster” summarizes lessons learned from a dialogue among lead organizations working at the intersection of post-conflict/post-disaster recovery, environmental sustainability and natural resource management, and conflict transformation.