Now what? : implications for academics, policy makers, and practitioners

Abstract

Effective conflict resolution depends on the cooperation of all relevant actors, religious or not, including academics, policy makers, and practitioners. One helpful example is the South African Reconciliation Barometer, the world’s longest running public opinion survey on national reconciliation. Since 2003, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in South Africa conducts nationally representative public opinion surveys on South Africans’ attitudes towards reconciliation. Most of faith-based peacebuilding work focuses on clergy, which, traditionally, have been mostly men. Women are often marginalized in these processes, and consequently, their perspectives and experiences are excluded. Many women of faith are actively involved in peacebuilding in their communities. Connected to the need to better include the youth is the need for conflict resolution in general, and religious conflict resolution in particular, to become better in strategically engaging the media and social media.