Connecting Positive Peace and Positive Health in a Systems Approach to Sustainable Development at the Community Level

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognized the interconnectedness of sustainable development, with peace and health emerging as highly influential. Challenges to peace and health have been linked from a systems approach by existing research; however, the potential for positive peace and positive health to be connected in a self-sustaining system has been investigated with less rigor. The present research argues that recentering a systems approach on capacities rather than challenges at the community level may present useful opportunities to both understand and pursue sustainability, which this paper explores through the lens of peace (SDG 16) and health (SDG 3).