ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the development of the life and peace institute (LPI) approach to peacebuilding. It summarizes the conflict situation in Somalia, followed by a description of LPI's involvement in Somalia from 1990 to 2003. The chapter also analyzes the LPI approach. LPI was founded in 1985 as an international ecumenical peace research institute. LPI has developed its own 'community bottom-up peacebuilding' approach, which can be classified as a specific approach among the peacebuilding/conflict transformation approaches and thus adds a new dimension to these non-governmental organizations approaches to peacebuilding. The conflict setting in Somalia as well as LPI's engagement shows that peacebuilding is a process. United Nations operation to Somalia was a frustrating experience for the entire international community, but led to some positive developments. From LPI's involvement in Somalia we can learn that there was not enough focus on sustainability. The main shortcoming of the LPI approach is its unclear relation to track-1 peacemaking.
