ABSTRACT
This chapter covers how local peacebuilding workers must have sustainable livelihoods if their essential peacebuilding work is to continue. Their expertise builds local community capacities. They are dedicated to change and nurturing a changing local environment because their livelihoods are directly dependent on funding from the International Fund for Ireland and the European Union Peace and Reconciliation Fund. The chapter emphasizes that both funders created temporary employment opportunities for local peacebuilders that cannot build a sustainable and meaningful peace because their jobs are not permanent. It includes how the funding often supported projects in the Protestant and Catholic communities that were noncontroversial. It also highlights how the funders and local governments see the civil society organizations’ temporary work as short-term conflict management efforts rather than long-term sustainable peacebuilding.
