Conversations with John Paul Lederach: “Add a pair of wings to a pepper pod, you would make a dragon fly”

Conversations with John Paul Lederach: “Add a pair of wings to a pepper pod, you would make a dragon fly”

Inspired by the natural wonders and how it holds complexity and simplicity in close encounters, we have  pondered on systems change in the global peacebuilding system – and recently consolidated our thinking in the piece “The Dragonfly Model: Systems Change to Strengthen Support for Locally-Led Peacebuilding ”. With many years of combined experience within the CSP team working with local peacebuilding and addressing challenges facing locally-led peacebuilding globally, we are still trying to understand how different systems change approaches within the peacebuilding field can be interconnected and complementary and eventually amount to broader systems transformation. How can we understand and visualise a system with many layers of complexity and still simplify it enough to inspire more peacebuilders to pursue broader systems change and seek complementarities with what others are doing?

Our efforts at understanding the link between concrete support to local peacebuilders and broader systems change efforts, which intend to shift the general ways in which support is provided within the broader system, inspired us to develop a new version of John Paul Lederach’s ‘nested paradigm’. The ‘layers’ of the nested paradigm shows the embeddedness of direct support to local peacebuilding into broader systems change efforts (each wing of the dragonfly). But it did not capture the fact that locally-led peacebuilding is embedded in both national and global systems related to peacebuilding and the aid infrastructure, and that inter-linkages and cross-fertilisation between these systems is shaping the space for locally-led peacebuilding.

A discussion around the wonders and complexities of insects emerged as the team of Conducive Space for Peace walked together in the beautiful surroundings of a convent in a remote part of Denmark in the Summer of 2020. We were inspired by the two wings of insects and their inter-connectedness to develop a model for systems change inspired by the two wings of insects. But it still didn’t capture the fact that the world is rapidly changing, and that we needed to understand both what is here now and what may be emerging in the future. A dragonfly crossed our path while we walked and talked. And it later became the source of inspiration for understanding the multiple dimensions and inter-connections within the global peacebuilding system.

In a dialogue between the CSP team and John Paul Lederach in the winter of 2021 regarding the Dragonfly Model, John Paul reflected on how he too draws a lot of inspiration for his work from natural phenomena. Nature constantly strives to find a balance between simplicity and complexity, and his exploration of a spiderweb has for instance served a source of inspiration for deep insights which has contributed to shaping the peacebuilding field.

The Dragonfly Model aims to strike the same balance. While simplifying something as complex as the global peacebuilding system, with the body of the dragonfly symbolizing local peacebuilding at the core, the model offers a new perspective on systems change. As John Paul puts it: “Complexity is the gift that keeps giving.”

During our conversation, John Paul Lederach also reminded us of the Japanese haiku from his book Moral Imagination: “Add a pair of wings to a pepper pod, you would make a dragon fly.”  When John Paul was reading this aloud, a slight change of tone inspired a new meaning that allowed us to pinpoint perhaps the most important dimension of this model: With a pair of wings, you can make a dragon fly.

In our understanding, locally-led peacebuilding is the dragon. It is what holds the power and potential for sustainable peace. When the wings of the dragon are driven by the core, when the global and national peacebuilding systems are moved in the service of and steered by local peacebuilders, it will have the power of a dragon to build sustainable peace and take us beyond what we currently imagine.

While the dragonfly represents a species that has lived on earth for more than 300 million years, it only lives for four weeks in its airborne life cycle. This is an interesting notion to hold in exploring this model, as it reminds us that no model is a constant but will need to be revisited, changed and eventually replaced by other emergent ways of understanding the global peacebuilding system and how shifting power to locally-led peacebuilding can be pursued.

Another significant trait of the dragonfly is that it is the only species of insects that moves its wings through muscles in its thorax that directly connect to the base of the wings. In our understanding of the model, we see it as an aspiration for how the system should work, with local peacebuilders holding the power to move the broader system to accommodate their needs and work to support them in the best way possible. Thus, the dragonfly carries the inspiration for driving change from the core of what matters: locally-led peacebuilding.

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The Dragonfly Model: Systems Change to Strengthen Support for Locally-Led Peacebuilding

We are excited to launch our latest publication – “The Dragonfly Model: Systems Change to Strengthen Support for Locally-Led Peacebuilding”. Emerging from Conducive Space for Peace’s experience of working with local peacebuilding and addressing challenges facing locally-led peacebuilding globally, this ‘model’ is created to inspire further thinking and understanding of systems change to enhance the space for locally-led peacebuilding.

With a world in flux: Embarking on a collective systems change journey

With a world in flux: Embarking on a collective systems change journey

23 percent of the world’s population currently lives in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, with violent conflicts reaching a higher rate globally than at any time in the past 30 years. This leaves us questioning whether the current ways of working in supporting peacebuilding is fit for purpose. Our new report, A Global System in Flux: Pursuing Systems Change for Locally-Led Peacebuilding, contributes to exploring what is working and what doesn’t. Here we highlight the systems change needed within the global peacebuilding architecture to enhance the space for locally-led peacebuilding. Furthermore, we call for the global community of peacebuilders and change makers to seize this moment, when the world is in flux, to come together and explore the multiple entry points for change we can pursue to create a more conducive space for local peacebuilding.   

The report examines the current societal trends influencing the space for locally-led peacebuilding, as well as the contributions and potential of relevant organizations and actors in the global peacebuilding system in influencing this environment.  By applying the Dragonfly Model developed by Conducive Space for Peace, the report seeks to capture the complexity of systems change in a dynamic model capturing the embeddedness of different levels of the system. Each wing of the dragonfly represents interrelated systems at both national and global levels, as well as the cross-fertilisation changing the current system while being able and willing to look to the future.

With a global system in flux, it is vital to consider what a ‘reimagined’ peacebuilding system would look like if one places local leadership at the core. The change agents withih the global peacebuilding system should seize this critical moment for change to further explore complementarities and alignment of initiatives in pursuit of systems change to foreground locally-led peacebuilding. The report aims to unpack ways of working that respect and enable locally-led peacebuilding—including funding mechanisms that provide flexibility and builds on local knowledge. We need to orient ourselves more towards approaches aimed  at strengthening relations and creating more spaces for dialogue among change agents in the global peacebuilding system and push for and accompany institutional change from within.

Changing the broader system will depend on the ability of organisations and institutions to carry out honest introspections and walk the talk. Organisational ways of working that are not enabling locally-led peacebuilding must be revisited,  and leaders of organizations including peacebuilding INGOs must prepare their organisations for change. The COVID-19 crisis has shaken the foundation for many organisations and created uncertainty among staff, presenting these entities with both opportunities and challenges. Transforming organisations to be a better fit for supporting locally-led peacebuilding will require self-reflection on how structures, practices, and attitudes can be adapted and changed. And it requires courage to take the first concrete steps to elicit such change.

We must address both internal and external dynamics influencing the possibility for change, including the operational dimensions of international institutions and the political pressures from donor constituencies with an enhanced focus on their own national interests. By taking systems change efforts beyond the policy level, and promoting more long-term and accompanying engagement with local actors, we can make the transition needed to make support to peacebuilding much more relevant, sustainble and dignified.

We know for certain that things will change regardless of what actors within the global peacebuilding system do. With global changes in motion, however, international actors can utilise the momentum currently building to address the systemic challenges  and co-create a global peacebuilding system in which locally-led peacebuilding is at the core. This commitment, not just in rhetoric, but in sustained action inspired by self-reflection, holds the promise and potential for sustainable peace.

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A Global System in Flux: Pursuing Systems Change for Locally-Led Peacebuilding

After 5 years of listening and pondering about the global peacebuilding system and locally-led peacebuilding, we have during the last couple of months finally consolidated our thinking into this report, “A Global System in Flux: Pursuing Systems Change for Locally-Led Peacebuilding”. With violent conflict reaching historic highs, we take the temperature on the societal trends, the state of the global peacebuilding system, and the current approaches to systems change and locally-led peacebuilding.