Research
Non State Actors
In fragile and conflict affected contexts, in the absence of an effective state, non-state actors – such as NGOs and other civil society groups, but also traditional authorities, neighbourhood watch groups or customary courts – often play an important role in the delivery of service to citizens. This includes services such as health care or education, but also tasks associated even more strongly with the state such as governance, justice and security. Because of the immediate link to people’s lives that these actors have, they are often seen as more legitimate, accessible, effective and efficient than the state. Although in the long run capacity-building of the state is a goal of programmes in fragile contexts, in the short to intermediate term incorporating non-state actors into programming, while ensuring linkages with the formal system and programmes building the capacity of the state, may generate great benefits for improving people’s daily lives.
Recognizing this importance of non-state actors, CRU works to improve the knowledge on how non-state actors can be incorporated in programming for (re)building security and governance. Guiding questions in this work include: to what extent do international fragile states policies acknowledge and succeed to materialise the identified importance of local capacities for peace, security and state-building? And, what possible opportunities and obstacles exist for improving operational mechanisms for including non-state actors in efforts to improve core functioning of the state?
CRU studies the role of non-state security and justice actors. This research addresses both conceptual and policy issues involved in supporting these types of actors as well as programmatic and practical challenges and opportunities of (donor)support for these actors. This is to generate general ideas of the role of non-state security and justice actors and the way they can be incorporated into wider capacity-building programmes.
In addition, CRU looks at the interplay between formal governance mechanisms and customary, non-state institutions such as councils of elders, religious movements or other community structures who fulfil governance functions as part of the informal ‘rules of the game’; CRU research particularly investigates how in these hybrid political orders international state-building efforts can build on informal governance arrangements and bring in certain non-state actors as part of the transition towards a more effective interaction between state and society.