This resource manual is designed for participants in CDA’ss Reflecting on Peace Practice (RPP) training course “Designing Strategic Initiatives to Impact Conflict Systems – Systems Approaches to Peacebuilding,” and for program and policy advisers, program planners and implementers, technical experts engaged in working with teams and partners towards change in fragile and conflict-affected context, as well as monitoring and evaluation experts.

Best results applying the content of this Manual will be achieved by working in teams including program staff, local partners, donors, and other partners and stakeholders.

This manual focuses on systems approaches to conflict analysis and to the development of peace program strategies. The tools and concepts explored in this manual are intended to be used in conjunction with those in the Reflecting on Peace Practice Basics – Resource Manual.

While familiarity with the basic RPP approaches is not a pre-condition to be able to use this systems resource, it will be useful if teams and partners have experience with conflict analysis and peacebuilding strategy design processes.

This manual builds upon material from the book Confronting War: Critical Lessons for Peace Practitioners (2003), which summarizes the lessons and insights from the first phase of CDA’s RPP program, and from more recent lessons gained through field applications and work with practitioners and organizations in various countries over the past decade.

Suggested Citation: Designing Strategic Initiatives to Impact Conflict Systems: Systems Approaches to Peacebuilding. A Resource Manual. Cambridge, MA: CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, 2016.