Consolidated Findings from Evaluating Systemic Action Research as a Participatory Peace-Building Intervention in Kangaba, Mali

This paper presents the findings from an embedded theory-based evaluation of a participatory peace-building initiative implemented in the Kangaba region of Mali as part of the ‘Vestibule of Peace’ project. The project used Systemic Action Research (SAR) to first support diverse members of selected local communities to collect and analyse life stories through mapping the systemic drivers of conflict. This causal analysis motivated the generation of collective solutions to selected drivers through facilitated Action Research Groups (ARGs). The SAR approach, as an alternative, participatory approach to peace-building, aimed to engage and empower local actors to build their agency as they define and negotiate innovative pathways to achieve peace.

The paper presents findings about how, for whom, and under what conditions the phases of the SAR process contributed to emerging outcome pathways: through high levels of ownership and use of an alternative, inclusive, and causal method for conflict mediation; leading to improved capacity for inclusive conflict mediation by traditional leaders and others; with concrete actions leading to specific solutions, such as the building and use of a new Vestibule with the potential for sustained change, and, in some cases, resulting in social ties being re-established between communities that had been in conflict.