Our staff and partners continue to be imaginative and resourceful in how they influence change. As an organisation we are committed to bringing people together to find creative and sustainable paths to peace. Here are five ways we innovated for peace in 2022.
1. New funding stream for women peacebuilders
Women continue to be underrepresented in peacebuilding processes, often because they don’t have access to flexible resources to respond to crises and seize key peacebuiding opportunities.
We have partnered with the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) Rapid Response Window that awards short-term grants to organisations working to increase the representation and participation of women in peacebuilding. The Rapid Response Window addresses urgent funding gaps with targeted, short-term support.
In Liberia the stream has funded two civil society organisations - the Women’s NGO Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL) and Liberia Future Trust (LiFT) - aiming to make the national peace process more inclusive. The new funding stream has enabled these organisations to build on current momentum to increase women’s voices, representation and meaningful participation.
2. Tackling environmental challenges to bridge divides
The climate crisis is fueling and exacerbating conflicts around the globe and climate disasters, like flooding in South Asia, are not restricted by borders. So when divided communities can work together to respond to this ‘common enemy’, we see opportunities for peacebuilding.
The Environmental Joint Venture for South Asia, launched with Inter Mediate, brings together environmental experts, think tanks, business leaders and peacemakers from India and Pakistan to design solutions to the region's environmental issues, whilst paving the way for greater cooperation.
The platform was announced at the Paris Peace Forum as one of the ten projects qualifying for scale-up. The creation of the platform has demonstrated the ability to cooperate in times of necessity, because the increasing damage caused by the climate crisis exists as a shared concern.
3. A new approach to dialogue in the Central African Republic
For decades, the Central African Republic has been stuck in cycles of violence. This year, we piloted an innovative new approach to dialogue in the country.
Decentralised Dialogue encourages inter-community discussions to identify conflicts that can be managed at community level, and those that require engagement with the provincial and national governments. The process allows individuals or organisations to both ‘listen down’ to local concerns, views and decisions, and effectively ‘speak up’ to national authorities, decision-makers and donors.
The first Decentralised Dialogue, held alongside our partners, discussed the future of peace in the area around Bossangoa. The dialogue brought together more than 150 people from twelve communities, and the CAR government has asked us to provide technical support to raise more awareness of the approach.
4. Using technology to predict future conflicts
Pastoralism – the practice of livestock herding between grazing sites – is a vital economic activity and livelihood for millions of people in many parts of Africa. Factors such as climate, environment and others have led to changes in the movements of herders often resulting in increased levels of violence.
We’re conducting research on Promoting peaceful pastoralism, as part of the XCEPT research programme, to better understand the impact of cross-border pastoral movements on peace and security.
The research combines field research, satellite data and analysis, and Geographic Information System mapping. The findings will help to predict potential locations of future violence, and develop policies and preventive actions to improve relations and reduce tensions.
5. Leading the way on bank de-risking
Along with other NGOs, government representatives and financial institutions in the Tri-Sector Group, we’re leading the way in finding solutions to the legal, regulatory or operational risks and issues that prevent NGOs from delivering humanitarian, peacebuilding and development assistance.
This year we co-organised a successful event with Bond and the Muslim Charities Forum to discuss bank de-risking, critically how to reach a middle ground so that the concerns of banks don’t prevent the critical work of peacebuilding and humanitarian NGOs.
The Tri-Sector group has achieved a shared understanding of the risks and the management of those risks and their work continues to gain recognition from the government. There have been positive changes in some governments and financial institutions' approach to risk but the conversation needs to continue.
