Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development 2024: State-building in contexts of invisible and multi-level governance

Most countries that have experienced conflict have been through some form of peace or transition process. However, to prevent conflict recurring, peace and transition processes need greater capacity.

The processes of the past and increasingly fragmented conflicts make it harder to reach new peace and transition agreements, and to translate them into constitutions. One key problem is that the fragmented nature of conflict, and the underlying reality of complex conflict systems, means that it is almost impossible to conceive of the type of state structure that could even theoretically gain buy-in from all the key groups. Yet, within the fragmented landscapes of Myanmar, Somalia and Yemen, there are forms of effective governance, including pockets of good governance. 

This session, led by International IDEA and the University of Edinburgh, at the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development 2024 will explore ways in which these fragmented forms of authority could help build new forms of incremental and bottom-up state-building.