Steps Toward Conflict Prevention

The Steps Toward Conflict Prevention Project (STEPS), begun in 2002, is in the process of reviewing successful prevention experiences. The project was inspired by the widely shared (though largely unknown) experience of communities in situations of conflict who somehow exempt themselves from that conflict. In general, conflict prevention occurs when people do not resort to war or violence even though the context is one that, in other circumstances, would seem likely to cause intergroup violence. That is, conflict prevention occurs at the level of the context and is accomplished by the people in that context.

STEPS hopes to learn if there are any elements that are common to all the prevention experiences that enable us to understand better what constitutes an effective prevention strategy and tolook for ways that international development and humanitarian assistance can support, or promote, prevention strategies.