Financing the Implementation of Peace Agreements

When peace agreements are reached, they often define a set of stipulations that need to be implemented in order for the agreement to work for all of its signatories. This can include, for example, the presence of peacekeepers or the creation of transitional justice mechanisms to deal with the legacies of violence and its perpetrators. Although funding aspects are key for the successful implementation of these stipulations, they might not play a terribly prominent role during negotiations. Since a peace agreement is only as good as its implementation, what can be funded and what is are more important questions than their status suggests. In this project, we seek to understand whether or not such questions are asked during the negotiation phase, how the answers to these questions might influence the process of the negotiation and what is agreed; and how the availability of funding influences whether or not what is agreed is actually implemented. Ultimately, we seek to understand if there is a relationship between what can be funded and what is agreed during the negotiation; and how funding – indirectly in this way and directly by providing for the implementation of the agreement – is interlinked with a sustained positive peace.