Séverine Autesserre at TED Global:
"If we want international peacekeeping to work, conflicts must be resolved from the bottom up,"
As an international humanitarian worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Autesserre has observed 18 years of intense violence in the region. Almost 4 million people have died in the conflict, making it the deadliest since World War II. After 2 decades of bloodshed, she says, it's clearly time to change our approach. The conflict in Congo is fundamentally local, she says: tensions revolve around political, social and economic disagreements in one village or territory that escalate into regional, national, cross-border fighting. "Community leaders know what to do to reduce conflict in their own community," she says. What can international actors do? Expand funding and support for local resolutions of land conflict and community reconciliation.
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