Science has a big role in building peaceful and resilient societies

Peace is not just the absence of armed conflict. Weak healthcare systems, public institutions losing trust, failing market systems, and other components of society all characterise a lack of peace. Peace is a condition maintained by systems that allow people and communities to live, work and prosper together.

The world marked World Science Day for Peace and Development on Tuesday under the theme; ‘Common Ground Through Science Diplomacy’. This provides a good opportunity to examine how science can be harnessed to ensure that systems, structures, and institutions function for shared prosperity.

There is often a risk of viewing peace as separate from development. The thinking was that development concerns economic growth through infrastructure and capital projects, while peace comes in when tension arises. This is not entirely factual. Functional institutions, structures, and systems are the foundations of a peaceful society. Well-functioning health systems, road infrastructure, education, and other systems are critical. When they collapse, tensions escalate.

Science matters because it can improve systems that maintain peace. Through science, we can strengthen food systems, prevent health pandemics, increase access to and retention in education, and contribute to shared prosperity.  The digital age presents an opportunity to accelerate innovation across sectors. Climate modelling can, for example, guide water planning. Fintech can improve financial inclusion. Precision agriculture can improve food production.

There are practical examples of how this approach can work. In March 2026, the Rotary Club of Kitale commissioned the Motosiet Safe Water Project in Trans Nzoia County. Supported by Rotary partners in Kenya and the United States, the project includes a solar-powered borehole, water storage and distribution infrastructure. Beyond improving access to clean water, the initiative illustrates how local communities and international partners can combine resources, expertise and technology to address shared challenges.

In Turkana, the Rotary Club of Nairobi Thika Road has supported digital literacy training for 40 teachers since January this year, helping strengthen their capacity to use technology in education.

These initiatives reflect a broader understanding of peacebuilding. For Rotary, peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but something that must be actively built by addressing its underlying causes, including poverty, unequal access to resources and limited educational opportunities.

Neither project alone can prevent conflict. But when development initiatives are informed by evidence, shaped by community needs and implemented through cooperation, they can help strengthen the foundations on which more peaceful and resilient societies depend.

Experiences from the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in Kenya further cement this argument. Refugees and host communities often rely on the same service delivery systems. They often use the same water sources, health facilities, schools, and markets despite unequal rights, resources, and opportunities. With science, governments working with partners can better understand population needs. Such understanding will ensure that development programming is driven by data and evidence.

These illustrations demonstrate that scientific knowledge is most valuable when it informs decisions that strengthen public systems and respond to the needs of society as a whole. Scientific knowledge, however, needs to be paired with strong institutions and policies to achieve desired outcomes.

In this pairing, this year's theme of science diplomacy becomes particularly relevant. Scientific cooperation needs to extend beyond research institutions and international conferences. Scientific innovations need to be pragmatic. Innovations should address practical challenges facing communities. Institutions, both within and outside government, need to increasingly share knowledge and pool resources for research and innovation.

Scientific progress then needs to translate into stronger, more inclusive systems. This calls for more deliberate involvement of communities. Communities must be at the centre of innovation. Ordinary members of the community, not just scientists, need to be part of conversations that shape solutions. Equally important is measuring success not simply by the technologies developed, but by improvements in people's lives, the resilience of institutions and societies' ability to manage shared challenges.

As part of commemorating World Science Day for Peace, we should heed the clarion call to view peacebuilding in its entirety. Let us not look at peacebuilding as something we do after development but as the outcome of effectively functioning subsets of the system that comprises society. Science provides the knowledge and tools to strengthen peacebuilding efforts.

Ultimately, the greatest contribution of science to peace may not lie in resolving conflicts after they arise, but in helping to build societies with strong, functional structures and institutions that progressively address them.

Richie Olaka is a Rotary Peace Fellow and Forced Displacement Specialist