The peacebuilding, development, and human rights fields have engineered powerful, effective tools to reduce violence, spanning the full conflict spectrum from prevention through reconstruction.
Violent conflict is an increasingly urgent concern. The global economy loses $14.3 trillion a year due to violence; $89.6 billion of this loss is due to terrorism.‘ Over the past 15 years, political, criminal, interpersonal, and social violence have increased dramatically, with terrorism and violent extremism burgeoning, as well As of 2014, the epidemic of violence directly claimed the lives of 1.3 million people annually, equaling 2.5% of global mortality? Violence also results in millions of deaths indirectly through conflict-related issues such as disease and food insecurity. Violence leads to more violence; exposure to violence is the single-largest driver to violence, including violent extremism.
Reducing global violence is a national security imperative. Investing in violence reduction is a cost-effective way to ensure the safety of the US and its allies. Peacebuilding practitioners have developed a wide range of successful programs that reduce violence by addressing the multiple root causes of conflict The results are increasingly measurable, with peacebuilding experts working constantly to delineate the roots of violence and to quantify the impact of our tools. The Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP), in partnership with Mercy Corps, Search for Common Ground and CDA implement the , a field~wide effort to facilitate measurement and learning across the peacebuilding field. Following are concrete examples of effective violence reduction programs, in contexts ranging from the Central African Republic to Chicago, with verifiable evidence supporting the role of development and peacebuilding in violence reduction With expanded reseach and resources, peacebuilding and development experts will be able to build upon this success and create a safer, more stable world.