In 1998, David Trimble and John Hume were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland.” They made the compromises – and took the sacrifices – that made the difference between securing the Good Friday Agreement and going back to the drawing board.

Both men, and others, have since pointed to the critical role played by Senator George Mitchell in the fraught period leading up to the Agreement. As Chair of the all-party talks, Senator Mitchell was an outsider with a winning formula. He was sufficiently impartial to be trusted by all sides as an honest broker, but yet his mission became increasingly personal. He was passionate about helping to make peace possible. His role, together with broader support from the United States, the British and Irish governments, and the local negotiators, was instrumental to the outcome.

Sometimes, it takes someone from the outside to help those on the inside see things in a different light: to recognise common ground and articulate shared interests in fresh ways. That’s why an international effort can play such an important role in the success – or failure – of a peace process.

Eighteen years later, in the footsteps of Trimble and Hume, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. He was recognised by the awarding Committee “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people.”

In Northern Ireland, we know that things weren’t instantly fixed in 1998, and there is plenty of work to be done. In Colombia, the process to date has been similarly bittersweet. Whilst an historic agreement was reached between the Colombian government and Farc rebels after four years of negotiations, Colombian voters narrowly rejected the deal in a referendum last month.

Today, President Santos visits Northern Ireland with a great sense of poignancy. Political figures from Northern Ireland had made a number of contributions to the Colombian talks in Havana, and their efforts may still be required. Both sides of the Colombian conflict have maintained their ceasefires in spite of last month’s referendum blow, but a renewed and sustained effort will be required to see the deal all the way through.

Northern Ireland should offer President Santos cause for optimism. Beneath our grey, rainy skies, he will have seen for himself the material fruits of peace that have come from stability and new streams of investment. More important might have been be his meeting with the First and deputy First Ministers at Stormont. When Senator Mitchell flew out of Belfast after securing the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, neither the DUP nor Sinn Féin had signed it. Sinn Féin’s negotiators held out until they had consulted with their membership, while the DUP opposed it outright.

The rest, of course, is history. When he met with the DUP First Minister and her Sinn Féin counterpart this afternoon, the Colombian president will presumably have brought them a message of gratitude from his own country for their contributions to its peace process. Explicitly and implicitly, they will have offered Mr Santos a message of steadfast optimism. A peace settlement isn’t signed, sealed and delivered in an instant; it takes time and patience. The Nobel Committee has recognised the efforts made by Santos to deliver peace for his country. Mr Santos will recognise that not everyone is as committed to the peace process as he is, but that with time and patience others can be persuaded.