Success is very difficult to determine in the peace-building business. Conflict resolution expert Dudley Weeks illustrates this neatly with his example of the conflict mediation between Sikhs and Muslims in Southall, London. The only indicator of success he could point to was that his trainees formed a conflict resolution organisation of their own, which is still operating. A more fundamental difference is that, if asked, the parties in a successful conflict resolution intervention would not acknowledge that outside forces were responsible for improving the situation. The mark of success is that the facilitation should not be seen as media or conflict-resolver led, but as emerging from within.
Evaluation is clearly one challenge on which further work needs to be done.
Not only in improving data gathering techniques, but also, and more importantly, in changing the attitudes of donors and sponsors to evaluation objectives. The consensus of the Lifeline Media research and workshop was that evaluation should be more qualitative than quantitative in nature, and should provide useful guidance for the on-going project. In conclusion, there was a strong feeling among participants that the Lifeline Media Workshop was a defining moment in the deployment of the media for peace-building. It was a unique opportunity for innovators in this field to compare experiences and plans for the future. Above all, there was a sense that the international community can no longer overlook the fact that media can be used as one of the most important and effective tools for peace-building.