A new report by the International Peace Institute (IPI) argues that in order to sustain peace, the focus of prevention must shift away from solely examining and avoiding violent conflict and instead look at resilient societies and build on what already works. As such, sustaining peace is an on-going process best carried out by national actors.

Several issue areas can contribute to sustaining peace, according to the report’s authors. These include, inter alia, gender equality and women’s empowerment, which is one of the strongest predictors of a state’s peacefulness; protecting human rights through strong national human rights institutions; and local actors, who can contribute to sustaining peace by encouraging non-violent conflict resolution and service delivery.

The report includes key recommendations for practitioners and policymakers at the local, national, regional and international levels working to build and sustain peace.