Attachments
Executive summary
A major problem facing the world is how to build peace following the ravages of increasingly protracted armed conflict. Armed conflicts leave behind shattered, divided societies that are at risk of repeating cycles of violence, and therefore need concerted peacebuilding efforts. Conflicts also take a heavy toll on people’s mental health and psychosocial well-being. One in five people who live in a war zone will likely develop a mental disorder, and many others suffer from painful everyday stresses associated with multiple losses, family separation, gender-based violence (GBV), disability, climate change and ongoing insecurity, among other issues.
Why integration matters
To build peace, there is a strong need to integrate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) with peacebuilding efforts. Broadly, peace cannot take root if conflict-affected people are suffering from deep emotional impacts and grievances that blunt trust and willingness to support peace processes. Without peace and social cohesion, mental health and well-being are undermined by entrenched hatreds and fears, social divisions and stresses associated with ongoing insecurity.
Most integrative efforts and publications have focused on bringing MHPSS approaches into peacebuilding work. Although this is highly important, it is equally important to bring peacebuilding approaches into MHPSS work. In this sense, the integration of MHPSS and peacebuilding is bidirectional. Current evidence indicates that:
-
psychological and social impacts of war and conflict can contribute to cycles of violence;
-
programmes and actions that interconnect MHPSS and peacebuilding are likely to have greater positive effect than could be achieved through a focus on either area by itself;
-
integrative efforts can help to reduce “do no harm” issues.
Nevertheless, MHPSS and peacebuilding have developed mostly as separate areas, with little interdisciplinary learning or cross-pollination between the two sectors. Historically, MHPSS and peacebuilding have evolved in distinct manners, with differing histories, disciplinary roots, institutional homes, theories, methods, practices and problems of focus. Yet rich interconnections exist between peacebuilding and mental health and psychosocial well-being, and work on integration has intensified. In 2020, the UN Secretary-General called for the integration of MHPSS and peacebuilding to be strengthened. The call reflected the extensive work of the UN on the Peacebuilding Architecture Review and the sustaining peace agenda, which highlighted the significant role of MHPSS in achieving and sustaining peace.
This report grows out of a related, convergent stream of work led by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee MHPSS Reference Group (IASC MHPSS RG), which in February 2019 reconvened the Thematic Working Group on MHPSS and Peacebuilding to bring together expertise from across the two fields and to develop a high-level framework for an integrated approach. The work of this thematic group, with an ongoing webinar series and global pre-survey in 2020 on integrating MHPSS and peacebuilding, provided a basis for this work. The report also aims to complement the UNDP guidance on integrating MHPSS into peacebuilding. Overall, it aims to enable and enrich the integration of MHPSS and peacebuilding in humanitarian, post-conflict and development settings. Based in part on a mapping process, and drawing on the insights from four global consultations, the report aims to describe the current state of work, analyse the connections between MHPSS and peacebuilding, examine commonalities and differences, identify challenges and areas for future development, enrich conceptualizations of integration and offer principles and recommendations for strengthening the practice of integration.