‘It’s complex.’ For some – more often researchers of conflict – it is a rallying cry, for others, including policy-makers, it can be a lament. 

This phrase is particularly applicable to the challenges of rebuilding services and livelihoods after conflict. Competing interests, relationships and political contexts collide in messy and unpredictable ways in peacebuilding processes. These processes are also much more than simple ‘rebuilding’. Since it matters who is included and who is not, rebuilding after conflict can be as contested as the conflicts themselves. 

We know this from research and practical experience: The Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) has shown that neither recovery, nor people’s experience of being included or excluded, are straightforward. Policy and programming need to become more adept at finding ways to use complex, often contradictory, information to respond to ever-changing situations.

Finding ways to be inclusive in peace processes and service delivery is a conundrum for which no single solution exists. And for policy-makers, the realisation that a situation is complex can be paralysing.

Bringing together voices from governments and the conflict and peace-building community, this event seeks to unpack the issue of complexity in conflict recovery and answer the question at the heart of it all: Are inclusive peace and recovery possible? Our expert panel discusses how to achieve inclusion after conflict in ways that are appropriate and politically feasible.