Peace Accords Matrix

The Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) program at the Kroc Institute is a unique source of qualitative and quantitative longitudinal data on peace agreements around the world. Through the PAM website, scholars and practitioners can compare 51 different themes found in more than 30 comprehensive peace agreements signed since 1989.

The program is made up of researchers and practitioners who provide support to ongoing peace processes on issues of peace agreement design and implementation. Drawing on this world class, peer-reviewed database, PAM researchers have developed a quantitative methodology to track the progress of peace accord implementation. The PAM database serves as a valuable tool for analysis, which the Kroc Institute uses to support the negotiation and implementation of peace accords, including the implementation of the Colombian peace accord through its Barometer Initiative.

In addition to PAM news noted in the “Highlights” section of this year’s annual report, as well as contributions included in “Research Peace”:

• Dr. Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, PAM’s director, facilitated the conversation with the Honorable Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia, who headlined the 29th annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy in September 2022. The Hesburgh Lecture is one of the Kroc Institute’s annual, long-running signature events. In his presentation, "Changing the Means But Not the Ends," Santos reflected on the situations a leader must face when unexpected obstacles appear along the path and spoke to how one must maintain a clear vision of the goal while adapting to change. He was Colombia’s president from 2010 to 2018; while in office, the country’s historic 2016 peace agreement was signed, ending Colombia’s 52-year armed conflict. The agreement gives the Kroc Institute primary responsibility for technical verification and monitoring of implementation of the accord through PAM’s Barometer Initiative.

• November 2022 was a busy month that included a visit to Washington, DC, to host a global policy conversation at the Keough School’s office, with Santos and representatives from the European Institute for Peace, Conservation International, and Humanity United. PAM members met with a variety of Capitol Hill staffers to bolster its presence there, too, which was followed by a colloquium at Yale University in mid-November featuring a series of academic discussions on sustainable peacebuilding, peace accords design, and implementation.

• Members of the PAM South Bend team visited Colombia in December 2022 to meet several additions to the Barometer Initiative team based in Bogotá, as well as new team members stationed in four regions throughout the country. While there, they also had in-person meetings with new members of the Colombian government.

• In February 2023, a Colombian delegation made up of Kroc Institute PAM members from South Bend and its Bogotá-based Barometer Initiative office; representatives from Colombia’s transitional justice entities; and staff and faculty from Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and the Lucy Family Institute traveled to Dublin, Ireland and Belfast, Northern Ireland. There they met with officials at the highest levels: parliamentarians from Ireland and Northern Ireland, including Fergus O'Dowd, chairman of the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and Charles Flanagan, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence, among many others. Throughout, participants engaged in inspiring discussion about transitional justice mechanisms, their effectiveness in guaranteeing victims' rights, and the hopes for peace accord implementation, reconciliation, and the challenges of memory in the different contexts.

  

• The Kroc Institute hosted visits from Colombian Truth Commission staff in January and March 2023 for knowledge transfer as part of The Legacy Project. This included launch events, panel discussions, and workshops, and represented excellence in inter-institutional cooperation at Notre Dame.

• PAM shared the spotlight as part of the Keough School’s “Dignity and Development Forum” in March 2023. Echavarría Alvarez moderated panel discussions addressing diverse perspectives on methods, practices, and tools aimed at promoting restorative and transformative justice.

• Laurel Quinn, PAM’s associate director for operations and policy, and Ángela María Ramírez Rincón, Barometer Initiative executive director, visited Washington, DC in April 2023 for meetings on Capitol Hill with legislators.
• South Bend-based Kroc Institute administrators and PAM members traveled to Colombia in April 2023, where they met with the Barometer team and held a public launch of the gender report, part of the peace accord monitoring effort, at a local university in Popayán.