Date: Saturday, May 10, 2025
Greetings, readers! I’m Wheeler del Torro, Co-Founding Advisor of Evaluation + Learning Consulting (ELC). As someone who studies the intersection of evaluation, development, and global systems change, I’ve long been drawn to the question: How do we evaluate peace? Not security, not stability—but peace itself.
In exploring nonprofits working in post-conflict contexts, I came across the Foundation for Post Conflict Development (FPCD), a UN-affiliated organization based in Monaco, whose philosophy left a lasting impression. FPCD’s work, guided by the D.A.N.C.E. framework (Diplomacy, Award, Navigate, Collaborate, Eradicate), approaches peace not as a fixed outcome but as a living process. Their positioning under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco speaks to a rare balance between diplomacy, environmental awareness, and community-rooted development. It’s an organization that doesn’t just respond to crises—it nurtures the conditions under which peace can persist.
Even from a distance, FPCD’s model offers lessons for those of us designing evaluations in complex, high-context environments. It reminds us that peace is not linear, and evaluating its presence demands more than logic models and KPIs.
We must consider: • What peace looks like on the ground—not in reports, but in relationships, rituals, and resilience • How healing happens slowly and often invisibly • Which voices are allowed to define progress
Traditional evaluation tools risk overlooking the nuance, the cultural cues, and the quiet breakthroughs that signal a community’s movement toward wholeness.
FPCD’s work suggests the need for: • Developmental and emergent approaches to reflect shifting landscapes • Story-driven methodologies, such as outcome harvesting and narrative inquiry • Cultural indicators that respect local definitions of progress, rather than imposing outside metrics
Our role, as evaluators and observers, is not only to assess what is “working,” but to pay attention to how peace is lived. We can’t claim neutrality in systems that have historically excluded or destabilized. Instead, we should become facilitators of meaning, enabling communities to tell their own stories of progress, grief, survival, and hope.
Watch what returns. When cultural traditions, food rituals, or multigenerational gatherings begin to reappear—peace is likely present, even if no baseline data says so.
Organizations like FPCD challenge us to rethink how we design and apply evaluation in the most sensitive spaces. They show us that peace can’t always be measured—but it can be felt, fostered, and co-created. Our methods must rise to meet that complexity with humility, flexibility, and care.
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