The core foundation of the Community Peace Programme is that within an appropriate and facilitative regulatory framework, internal local knowledge and skills can be used as, and in some cases more, successfully than professional assistance from the outside.

The work of the Peace Committees is recognised by local police station commissioners and magistrates as complementing their own professional activity, and they encourage community members to make use of the service provided by the Peace Committees. Local authorities recognise Peace Committees as a reliable and non-politicised means of communicating and listening to poor communities.

The intention to build a sustainable and replicable model has been there from the beginning for the Community Peace Programme. Building a model is very different from just carrying out a successful project in one community. To achieve this, a built-in process of reflection and discussion and documentation of what does and does not work has been conducted. Each step has been tested for efficiency and effectiveness along the way, without the values and priorities that were agreed upon by all concerned at the beginning of the project being compromised.

In its exact form the Peace Committee Model cannot be exported or transferred to other environments. However what underlies the particular practices and structures of the Peace Committee Model is a more fundamental set of assumptions, principles and ways of thinking about governance and the limits of professional expertise. The Peace Committee Model has attracted attention from practitioners and scholars from Europe, North and South America, Australia and Africa, who have come to visit and observe Peace Committees in action.

The most recent development has been the introduction of the Community Peace Programme into 180 primary and secondary schools. This development sees two main benefits – it guarantees the sustainability of the Peace Committee Model by incorporating it into an existing community-based infrastructure, and it opens up the Peace Committee experience more readily to participation by children and youth, both as committee members and as disputants seeking facilitation.

Peace is a precondition for development and learning and this initiative will lead to peace within the schools which will result in uninterrupted learning and better education.

A safe and secure environment is integral to the social, political and economic life of every individual and community. The Community Peace Programme is concerned with the development and growth of communities, encouraging meaningful participation in society, and assisting communities to attain an acceptable standard of living. The programme considers the needs of broader society and addresses security issues. The Community Peace Programme responds to needs in government and policing.

The Community Peace Programme integrates community based knowledge and ability with that of the education system, social services and the criminal justice system. The programme continues to help people recognise that they can solve their own problems.