b'The Pulte InstituteforGlobal DevelopmentJust Systems and Effective StatesMeasuring Effective Programs for Lasting PeaceThe Pulte Institute convened experts and practitioners in Washington, D.C., to discuss the role of long-term evaluation for the peacebuilding sector in June 2024. At the center of the dialogue were new findings from the Expanding the Reach of Impact Evaluation (ERIE) study, an evaluation of 10 USAID-funded peacebuilding activities across Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Colombia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The programsfrom mediation and dialogue trainings to art therapy and traumaExpert panelists at the June 2024 conversation on measuring peacebuilding interventions over time, including the Pulte Institutes Danice Brown Guzmn, associate director, Evidence healingwere designed to strengthen social cohesion andand Learning (second from left); Jaimie Bleck, Notre Dame associate professor and Pulte faculty fellow (third from left); Eduardo Pages, specialist, Evidence and Learning (center); Jaclyn Biedronski, program manager, Evidence and Learning (fifth from right); Lila Khatiwada, promote peaceful coexistence among diverse ethnic andsenior researcher (far right).religious groups, as well as communities in conflict due to political affiliations or the positions members may held asThe findings were followed by an insightful roundtable civilians or combatants when hostilities were at their height.discussion with leading experts from USAID, the World Bank, Mercy Corps, Search for Common Ground, and Pact on the In partnership with USAID colleagues and local leaders in eachcritical need to measure the long-term impact of peacebuilding country, the Pulte Institute teamdesigned a retrospectiveinterventions, as well as the implications for policies such as the evaluation to assess the long-term effects of the programs,Global Fragility Act. The conversation, moderated by ND Political identify overarching trends, and recommend effective andScience professor Jaimie Bleck, explored the importance sustainable approaches to peacebuilding. The research findingsof grounding activities in the local context with buy-in from and recommendations provide an evidence base to guide thecommunity leaders, and the potential of People-to-People design and implementation of similar programs in the future. reconciliation programming to break down harmful stereotypes and build bridges across communities.We appreciate this work because it has an immediate impact, said Golnoosh Hakimdavar, a rule of law expert and funds teamPeace doesnt happen overnight. It certainly doesnt happen lead in the Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilizationwith one program, said Katie Smith ND 12, global policy and at USAID. We are using the results, we are taking theoutreach specialist, Search for Common Ground. It requires recommendations and we are making shifts in how welong-term commitment from participants, donors, and partners shape programming.at all levels. That is key to achieving healthy, safe, and just societies.What Notre Dame did here is importantbuilding an approach to evaluation and data collection through co-creation with USAID, but more importantly, with local partners.Don Chisholm, ND 90, JD 93, acting Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Conflict Don Chisholm at the Measuring Lasting Peace discussion in Washington, D.C., June 2024. Prevention and Stabilization Bureau3836 | Just Systems and Effective States'