Owners or partners? : A critical analysis of the principle of local ownership

This chapter critically examines the term local ownership. It shows that while the concept is widely used and accepted in policy debates, many international peacebuilding programmes are still largely externally designed in practice. Due to the dominance of the liberal peace paradigm in contemporary peacebuilding debates, this means that such programmes are heavily influenced by liberal principles. At the same time, local initiatives are assessed based on their compatibility with liberal values. An alternative is provided by communitarian approaches which suggest taking the local as a starting point. In this view, the role of international actors is merely to support strategies already undertaken by local actors. Based on empirical insights, this chapter questions however whether in this latter case, local ownership is still relevant as a concept or whether it would not be more accurate to talk about local leadership. It then proposes a middle ground between liberal and communitarian approaches by examining the interaction between external and internal actors. Thereby, it suggests partnerships based on a greater focus on plurality and each actor’s comparative advantages. Only in such a way, the chapter concludes, does peacebuilding revolve around a true cooperation between international and local actors while respecting each actor’s unique perspectives.