16. Shankar, R.A. Analyzing Health Initiatives as Bridges towards Peace during Complex Humanitarian Emergencies and the Roles of Actors and Economic Aid in Making These Bridges Sustainable. Master’s Thesis, Dalhousie University, 1998: 86pp.

This thesis has two main purposes. First, it explores the opportunities for, and effects of, using health initiatives and programs as ways to help stop and/or reduce conflict during complex humanitarian emergencies. In essence, it asks whether and how such initiatives may act as “bridges” towards peace and hence facilitate more durable forms of development. Second, it examines the economic entitlements by which such bridges may be sustained. The thesis defines basic concepts that include “public health,” “health policy,” “armed conflict and complex humanitarian emergencies,” “macro-environmental factors,” “health initiatives towards peace,” and “peace initiatives.” Then follows a critique of strategies that have been adopted when using health initiatives as bridges towards peace. These include humanitarian cease-fires, mental health initiatives and community development efforts. Case studies are presented. It is then suggested that the extent of peace achieved, depends in part at least, on the manner in which “peace” is interpreted. It is argued that there has been a dearth of evaluation of the effects of health initiatives on the overall peace process. A set of criteria is compiled to evaluate possible long-term effects. It is suggested that increased coordination must occur between various agencies and that the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs be made the overall coordinating agency for successfully fulfilling ‘health bridges towards peace’ initiatives during conflicts. The thesis argues that to make such health bridges to peace sustainable, public health entitlements and aid, initially focusing on the public health system must be infused in the pre-accord peace period, i.e., during the health-brokered humanitarian cease-fires. These may be supplemented by economic reconstruction programs to encourage the peace process to continue through to the post-conflict period. The thesis concludes by drafting the elements of a capacities-vulnerabilities framework, as a diagnostic tool to highlight better the effects of aid intervention on the internal resources of conflict-affected societies.