Conclusion: Why Does a Participatory Approach Matter?

Abstract

This study exposes the complex nature of the causal relationships at work in post-war peacebuilding and recovery from conflict, and the reality that interaction between the factors is significant in shaping the outcome. Reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction are open systems, where causal complexity is the norm, rather than a closed system where all the variables are accounted for and where endogeneity and interactions can be disregarded. Any attempt to deal with the causal connections as an ecology is, of course, more difficult than looking at a series of distinct one-way relationships. As a result, given the constraints of this study, the conclusions reached here are tentative. They are, nonetheless, the best analysis available within these constraints, and are strongly supported by the evidence. Recognising causal complexity at the very least reduces the risk of producing generalisations which, while satisfying, are over-simplifications. Having said that, this study concludes that taking a participatory approach does indeed influence the process of reintegrating ex-combatants in a number of significant ways, and that participation is an appropriate and useful way of analysing that process.