ILT Reports
 | Research Report – Handling Harmful Content Online: Cross-National Perspectives of Users Affected by Conflict – April 2021Search for Common Ground undertook a study to examine how users in conflict-affected societies handle harmful content online, and to identify barriers that they face in using existing mechanisms such as content reporting to make their online spaces safer. The study was possible with financial support from Facebook. We spoke to 68 individuals in seven countries across four regions: the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras), East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), and Southeast Asia (Myanmar). The study found that the worst violent content, and most effective responses to it, appear in private groups and messages. Users, including direct participants in violence and active resistors of violence want to make their online spaces safer. However, current strategies that these users favor in tackling harmful content do not address the underlying stress and grievances. The report proposes that if we are to make online spaces safer for people, particularly those who live in conflict-settings – multi-stakeholder engagement is key. There are several recommendations that the report puts forth to drive collective efforts in understanding and proposing root causes of conflict dynamics, instead of just relying on existing mechanisms as the ultimate solution. |
| Advancing the conversation on the Cost-effectiveness of Peacebuilding – A case study approach: Plateau State, NigeriaBy Sarah Ferbach, Institutional Learning Team Fellow, August 2020 This paper explores the cost-effectiveness of peacebuilding as a core question to the long-term prevention of violent conflicts. With most current investigations into the question of cost-effectiveness focusing either on individual programs or on the macro-economic benefits of peace, Search proposes to look at this issue at a different level. Taking Plateau State, Nigeria as a case study, this paper examines a range of programs to understand how multi-sectoral investments in peacebuilding have influenced patterns and trends in scenarios of conflict. This research paper includes three recommendations to support stakeholders in the designing of interventions with the greatest impact on the mitigation of conflict trends, enabling them to articulate the return on investment associated with peacebuilding and ensuring that more resources are directed towards the field. |
| Report – Building Social Cohesion in the Midst of Conflict – December 2020Over the course of 2020, Search for Common Ground (Search) conducted research in partnership with Facebook in an effort to advance knowledge of the relationship between building social cohesion and outcomes in peace and conflict, culminating in the report “Building Social Cohesion in the Midst of Conflict: Identifying Challenges, Measuring Progress, and Maximizing Results.” Promoting social cohesion in conflict-affected societies is a critical component of efforts to end violent conflict. The report reviews five years of Search’s social cohesion programming to examine the most effective measures for understanding success, and what long-term impact looks like. Effective measures of social cohesion identified include: 1) Agency, or the degree to which people feel that they have power to influence issues they care about without violence; 2) Horizontal Cohesion, or whether people are willing to trust and rely on others outside of their group; and 3) Vertical Cohesion, or whether people engage with decision-makers and others in power. The report features examples of programming and results from South Sudan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Great Lakes region. Four recommendations to promote what works to build social cohesion—and to avoid what does not—stood out based on the research findings. Investments in social cohesion should empower individuals to shape their communities as well as make room to foster and support positive, unintended results. Such investments should avoid thinking about social cohesion in short-term cycles and focusing on a single measure of “success.” |
 | Effective Inter-religious Action in Peacebuilding: Global Advisory Council – Annual Meeting ReportThis report comes from Effective Inter-religious Action in Peacebuilding: Global Advisory Council – Annual Meeting in Istanbul, held in June 2016. |
| ICTs for Monitoring & Evaluation of Peacebuilding Programmesby Vanessa Corlazzoli |
| Evaluating Impacts of Peacebuilding Interventions: Approaches and Methods, Challenges and ConsiderationsBy Vanessa Corlazzoli, in conjunction with Diana Chigas, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, and Madeline Church, Saferworld This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of evaluating the impacts of intervention that aim to build and achieve peace by targeting key drivers of conflict and peace. It is intended to help staff work with evaluators to ensure evaluation designs are appropriate, robust and conflict sensitive. This work builds on a study conducted for DFID on Broadening the Range of Designs and Methods for Impact Evaluations. |
| Measuring the Un-Measurable: Solutions to Measurement Challenges in Fragile and Conflict-affected EnvironmentsBy Vanessa Corlazzoli and Jonathan White This how-to guide provides an overview of key tools, methodologies, and approaches in the social sciences that can be utilised for measuring intangible change in conflict-affected and fragile environments. |