LATELY there’s been a lot of unrest in the media—from the regular Ukraine War updates, family violence, self-harm or national debates and conflicts. These headlines can be quite disheartening because I would love to hear about more peaceful and constructive dialogue and events. We ought to do as we preach and with that in mind, we must practice some form of peacebuilding to help rid the world of its rising numbers of violent crimes and events. We can “build peace” through our own homes or schools or form groups to execute peacebuilding exercises in a more structured sense.

Peacebuilding is the process of reducing violence in societies. It’s about the actions taken when there’s conflict while simultaneously supporting and managing conflict resolution without including violence. It is essentially a concept that helps to prevent the outbreak, escalation, continuation and reoccurrence of violence—according to International Alert. Peacebuilding is a continuous process that requires patience and community-wide support to achieve its success. Societies and communities worldwide cannot effectively thrive as they should if there are high levels of violence. As such, peacebuilding is of paramount importance to all.

Violence stems from conflict within relationships. We stand a better chance at combating violence by understanding the dynamics and conflict within personal relationships, communities and even a country/countries at large. Peacebuilding is a wide concept and it can take the shape of many solutions we may already be familiar with. Utilizing the media to share positive, anti-violence and informative messages, advocating for the voices of underprivileged populations to be heard by policymakers and even bringing conflicting groups or parties together to help resolve their conflict. Peacebuilding can also help to encourage policy reformations that are either outdated or serve against an underprivileged social group.

As we encourage peacebuilding in Guyana and worldwide, we ought to ensure our approaches are sustainable and effective. Peace is more than just the absence of violence as well. We ought to ensure that every member of our society is housed in a safe and secure environment without fear or prejudice. Peace also means that resources are accessible to all and are not limited to the selected one per cent. Peacebuilding should inspire equality of all social groups and ensure that all groups are heard from the grassroots to the highest levels in state administration.

Peacebuilding is a collaborative effort. It is done at a country’s micro, mezzo or macro levels. It involves everyone—from Non-governmental organisations, governmental institutions, civil levels, the community and its people, religious institutions, schools and the family. To ensure positive and constructive change within ourselves and even our society at large— we ought to all play our roles in eradicating violence while promoting peace. Whatever it is you choose to do, I hope it’s for the betterment of promoting or supporting the building of peace.