Lesley Connolly (de Sylva) joined IPI in June 2016, and is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations. Her work focuses on issues peacebuilding, prevention and sustaining peace. Within this, she works to bridge the ‘local global’ gap by testing policy frameworks in different country contexts and sharing evidence from the ground of what works to build and sustain peace. Central to Lesley’s work is bringing local perspectives to a New York context and support work to identify, empower and build resiliencies in societies.

Prior to joining IPI, Lesley worked at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) as the Senior Program Officer in the Peacebuilding Unit, in Durban, South Africa (2012-2015). Here she focused on peacebuilding policy development and capacity building to address the root causes of violence and encourage reconciliation, specifically in Madagascar, Liberia and South Sudan. She also worked closely with the African Union’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development Program and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, aiming to provide more coherence and coordination within peacebuilding initiatives of the two institutions.

Lesley holds a Masters of Arts in International Relations and International Law from New York University, USA. Her Master’s thesis focused on UN peace operations fatalities and the correlation between use of force in UN peace operations and malicious act fatalities against UN peacekeepers in Mali, CAR and the DRC. Lesley also hold a Masters of Philosophy in Social and Transitional Justice from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her Master’s thesis focused on Sierra Leone’s transitional Justice process and to what extent the Special Court and Truth and Reconciliation Commission were able to address gender inequalities in the country. Lesley’s undergraduate degree is also from the University Of Cape Town majoring in Political Science, focusing on Justice and Transformation.

Selected Publications

• “Incorporating Gender into UN Senior Leadership Training” (New York: International Peace Institute, March 2019)(with Sarah Taylor)
• “Peacebuilding, Prevention, and Sustaining Peace: Q&A with Susanna Campbell,” The Global Observatory 2018
• “Local Networks for Peace: Lessons from Community-Led Peacebuilding” (New York: International Peace Institute, September 2018)(with Laura Powers)
• “Sustaining Peace in the “New Gambia,” ACCORD, May 2018
• “Local Peacebuilders Share Views on Challenges to Sustaining Peace,” The Global Observatory 2018 (with Sapna Considine)
• “Why Do We Need Sustaining Peace? Examining the Vision That Ties the UN Together,” The Global Observatory 2018 (with Laura Powers)
• “Sustaining Peace in Practice: Building on What Works” (New York: International Peace Institute, February 2018) (with Youssef Mahmoud and Delphine Mechoulan)
• “Toward a New Gambia: Linking Peace and Development” (New York: International Peace Institute, January 2018) (with Cheryl He)
• “Scenario-Based Learning for Senior Leadership Teams in UN Field Missions: A Framing Paper” (New York: International Peace Institute, January 2018) (with Arthur Boutellis)
• “The Gambia: An Ideal Case for Prevention in Practice,” The Global Observatory 2017
• “Turning point for the AU-UN peacekeeping partnership?” Institute for Security Studies, September 22, 2017 (with Gustavo de Carvalho); re-published in the Daily Maverick, September 25, 2017
• “Can the AU and UN Work Together to Reform African Peace Operations?” The Global Observatory, 2017 (with Gustavo de Carvalho)
• “Medical Support for UN Peace Operations in High-Risk Environments” (New York: International Peace Institute, April 2017)(with Håvard Johansen)
• “The State of UN Peace Operations Reform: An Implementation Scorecard” (New York: International Peace Institute, November 2016) (with Arthur Boutellis)
• “A Year of 'Sustaining Peace:' What Was Learned from Burundi and The Gambia?” The Global Observatory, 2017
• “Sustaining Peace in Security Transitions: The Liberian Opportunity,” The Global Observatory, 2017 (with Gizem Sucuoglu)
• “Protecting Mali’s Peace: The Role of Civil Society,” The Global Observatory, 2016 (with Delphine Mechoulan and Minna Højland)
• “Can Sustaining Peace Find Sustainable Funding?” The Global Observatory, 2016
• “Investing in Peace and the Prevention of Violence in West Africa and the Sahel-Sahara: Conversations on the Secretary General’s Plan of Action” and “Investir dans la paix et la prévention de la violence en Afrique de l’Ouest et dans le Sahel-Sahara: Conversations autour du Plan d’action du secrétaire général” (New York: International Peace Institute, September 2016) (with Olga Abilova, and Arthur Boutellis)
• “South Africa Two Decades after Transition: From Apartheid to a Thriving Multi-Party Democracy,” The Global Observatory, 2016 (with John L. Hirsch)
• “AU Peace Fund Could Be Catalyst for True UN Partnership,”
  The Global Observatory, 2016