Natural resources often lie at the heart of wars and civil strife. Global trends such as population growth, climate change and environmental degradation place a significant, and often unsustainable pressure on the natural resource base, such as minerals, land and water. Good governance of natural resources and environmental protection are seen as key ingredients for peace and post-conflict development. This international academic conference will focus on the role of natural resources in preventing, managing and resolving violent conflict.
The conference invites supporting and opposing papers on defining peacebuilding, with a focus on environmental peace. Yet, the conference also questions whether peacebuilding, or 'peace infrastructure', as a concept, term and plan for implementation, is any different to previous, much-maligned concepts of 'tick-box peacebuilding' that prefers bureaucratic and economic 'solutions' to often social and cultural problems.
World Water Week 2015 will meet under the theme ‘Water for Development,' with experts, practitioners, decision makers, business innovators and young professionals from a range of sectors and countries coming together to network, exchange ideas, stimulate innovative thinking and develop solutions to water-related challenges. The Week will include 160 events and eight workshops to discuss issues related to financing, the proposed sustainable development goals (SDGs), integrity, gender, climate change, energy, sanitation, food, conflict resolution and water management.