Aall warns that these roles must be kept separate both for the safety of the NGO workers, and in order to be effective. While NGOs should continue their traditional relief and rehabilitation activities, the author argues that NGOs must adopt a more long-term perspective on their activities. In providing relief and rehabilitation, NGOs should seek to draw on local resources. Developing local resources empowers people. Excessive use of external resources can foster dependence and passivity.
External resources can also become a new object of contention, inadvertently fueling the conflict.
NGOs should also seek to draw new participants into their activities. For example women, who have often been overlooked in peace processes, have recently played key roles in reestablishing communication and economic ties between fighting groups in Somalia. One way to make peacemaking more effective is to shift more towards a preventative approach to conflict. Local and grass-roots oriented NGOs are uniquely placed to recognize the early signs of conflict and deteriorating social conditions. In many cases, the international community has had early warning of a potential conflict, but has lacked the political will to act.