Reducing Violence in a Time of Global Uncertainty

The new Sustainable Development Goal to reduce armed violence is a welcome commitment but the prescriptive nature of its approach is problematic – there is ‘no one size fits all’. Rather, focus needs to be on how violence operates in particular settings. Evidence from IDS’ Addressing and Mitigating Violence programme highlights the need to pursue bespoke approaches to tackling violence. We must recognise how different types of violence interlink and reinforce each other; how transnational and local-level actors involved with violence connect and operate; and how democratic spaces, and agency, need support and consideration for the pursuit of peaceful outcomes.