Enriching Narratives to Overcome Polarisation: Lessons from IFIT’s Work in Latin America

In fragile and conflict-affected settings, narratives play an especially critical role in shaping identities, (de)legitimising different policies and actors, and promoting or undermining peace. This practice brief documents concrete steps for adapting IFIT’s narrative peacebuilding approach to fit the contextual and operational needs of diverse contexts, using examples from IFIT’s work in Latin America, particularly Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico. It demonstrates that narrative peacebuilding can be both a stand-alone line of programming and a lens embedded in daily practice. 

The brief first outlines how to create stand-alone narrative initiatives explicitly focused on narrative transformation, including narrative mapping, production of narrative toolkits, arts-based practices, and training workshops for a range of stakeholders. It then shows how narrative can be used as a transversal lens to inform all activities, including development of theories of change, stakeholder outreach, event design, and facilitation of engagements between conflictive actors. The brief concludes with lessons for practitioners, offering practical ideas and realistic expectations about narrative transformation as a long-term, context-sensitive pathway to more inclusive peacebuilding.

The DOI registration ID for this publication is: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20119923