One of CSVR's priorities is to study, analyse and generate knowledge on violence and conflict. Key to all CSVR's projects is the aim to facilitate the production and sharing of knowledge. Understanding violence and conflict, their causes and dynamics, and ways to prevent and redress violence remains an important challenge in guiding society's attempts to build sustainable peace.
Some of CSVR's projects are primarily designed as research projects, but the majority of research we do happens alongside our advocacy and intervention work. Our research is done in a way that seeks to build the capacity of our partners in addressing issues of violence and reconciliation. We seek to collaborate with and learn from the lived and diverse experiences of communities affected by violence and conflict. Our research occurs at multiple levels – individual, community, national, international – but with a particular focus on Africa as a region and on South Africa.
Research at CSVR fulfils three key functions:
Evidence-based advocacy
Our research supports evidence-based advocacy and intervention work, ensuring that our engagement with communities, clients and stakeholders is based on an informed understanding of key issues and challenges.
Supports the communities
Our research supports the communities where we work to articulate their understandings and priorities in relation to the issues that CSVR addresses.
Informs national public
Our research informs national public debate, critical policy dialogues and international discourse on issues of violence and sustainable peace.
CSVR research is both externally focused (documenting and analysing conflict and designing initiatives to address these problems) and internally focused (reflecting on our own practice and documenting what we have learned from our work).
CSVR's research focuses on a range of topics. Research projects currently underway include:
- Corporate Symbolic Reparations in Transitional Justice Contexts
- International Journal of Transitional Justice
- Youth Inclusion for Violence Prevention
Recently concluded research projects include:
- Comparative Study of Transitional Justice in Africa
- Peacebuilding Innovations: International Norms and Local Dynamics in Conflict-Affected Countries
- Urban Violence Prevention through the CWP Public Employment Programme
- Violence, Inequality and Transformation: Apartheid Survivors on South Africa's Ongoing Transition
Research Staff:
Hugo van der Merwe
Director of Research, Knowledge and Learning
Boikanyo Moloto
Researcher
Jasmina Brankovic
Senior Researcher and Advocacy LME Specialist
Malose Langa
Senior Research Associate