Rigorously measuring the effects of peacebuilding approaches
This Special Issue of the Journal of Development Effectiveness will bring together rigorous, innovative research on peacebuilding interventions, their effectiveness, how they work, which types offer the greatest return on investment, and which types might not perform as anticipated. In particular, the Special Issue welcomes submissions that seek to shed light on the key building blocks of international strategies for building peace and reducing conflict, and all stages of the conflict cycle, particularly those that remain understudied and/or are ill-suited to the standard methodologies of rigorous impact evaluation. We welcome submissions that use randomized and quasi-experimental approaches, as well as approaches using novel methodologies to provide learning rigor in the field.
Themes include but are not limited to:
- Which kinds of intervention are the key building blocks of international efforts to build, support, create or reaffirm peace?
- What are the effects of peacebuilding interventions?
- Which peacebuilding interventions offer the greatest returns on investment? Which are best placed to build peace? Are there trade-offs between these two things?
- Where are the key knowledge gaps in the field? Where do the future opportunities for pro-peace programming and evaluations of these interventions lie?
- Why are there key knowledge gaps in the field? Which methodological approaches can be used to overcome these key gaps?
- How should peace outcomes be measured?
Scope:
- The Journal does not favor any one methodology. However, publications that rely on research findings must demonstrate rigorous evaluation techniques that address biases robustly.
- The Journal publishes evidence of the impact of projects, programs, and policies in developing countries, and discussions of experiences in conducting impact evaluations and using their findings to inform policy and program design. For this Special Issue, the focus is on projects, programs, and policies that aim to build peace and reduce conflict at all stages of the conflict cycle.
- The Journal also publishes papers of a more conceptual nature related to impact evaluation principles and practices, as well as papers covering practical aspects of conducting impact evaluations. For this Special Issue, the focus is on principles and practices related to the measurement of peacebuilding and conflict outcomes and new methodologies for evaluating intervention types that are not well-suited to the standard techniques of impact evaluation. Any submissions focused on more conceptual nature, including reviews and commentary, should be grounded in data and/or a thorough literature review.
The deadline for manuscript submission is 31 October 2025.
You can find out more and submit via the Journal of Development Effectiveness.
