Sustaining peace, recovery and confidence-building

In the Europe and Central Asia region, communities interact daily despite their legacy of conflict and division.  Frozen conflicts and territorial disputes often hinder socio-economic development, stability and security for people on all sides.

Creating an environment that allows for development progress requires facilitating reconciliation and preventing outbreaks of violence. UNDP addresses ongoing tensions between communities, especially in border areas that are not always in alignment with modern borders.

Local development initiatives are also a key focus. Social infrastructure, such as the rehabilitation of shared healthcare institutions, community markets, roads and educational institutions in strategic locations, often creates opportunities for individuals from different communities to interact and engage through common interests.

We employ a range of measures to open space for dialogue, build confidence, encourage interaction, and establish shared understanding. Cooperative problem solving helps to normalize relationships, build trust and reduce the potential for violent conflict.

Some of our work includes:

• providing community leaders in the border areas of Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic, particularly in and around the Fergana Valley, with information on the challenges and risks facing their communities, allowing them to advocate for joint projects and activities with other communities to address those problems;
• addressing the legacy of the conflicts in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia – in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Dialogue for the Future remains one of the flagship projects for reconciliation in the Europe and Central Asia region, helping to address past grievances, bring together communities from different ethnic groups, and build understanding;
• increasing positive interactions and diminishing the negative impact of high-level political disputes on the local populations in Transnistria, in Moldova, where the absence of a political resolution to the territorial dispute and the separation of societies and political structures has complicated future negotiations; and
• using confidence building measures in Georgia to help bring communities at the grassroots closer together through the Confidence Building Early Response Mechanism (COBERM) programme.