News and Insight

Conciliation Resources is saddened to learn of the passing of Senator Mohamed Yusuf Haji this morning in Nairobi. The organisation has worked closely with Senator Haji since 2012 in his capacity as the chairman of the Government of Kenya team, spearheading the peace talks between the Government of Ethiopia and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Conciliation Resources was invited by the Kenya team to provide technical assistance to the peace process.

Conciliation Resources has appointed Diana Good, as the new Chair of its Board of Trustees. Diana has already served on Conciliation Resources’ Board for four years. She takes over from Dr David Donoghue, who will remain on the Board as a trustee.

In a rural village in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, Barbara Tanne is a leader for peace. Working with the village chief and other leaders she mediates conflicts within her community and prevents violence from breaking out. She is also an advocate for women – speaking out against gender-based violence and supporting women survivors. Recently, she was instrumental in helping ensure voting in the referendum happened peacefully.

Violent conflicts haven’t stopped for COVID-19. Neither have we. Throughout 2020 we have found creative ways to continue our vital work, and have adapted our peacebuilding efforts.

Our partners in Fiji, Transcend Oceania, have teamed up with Fiji Television Limited to broadcast a series of television shows focused on community engagement with peacebuilding initiatives.

Last month Conciliation Resources and Saferworld co-hosted a panel discussion to launch our new guide for facilitators on participatory gender-sensitive conflict analysis.

Globally, one in four young people live in places affected by armed conflict or organised violence, and they account for nearly 40 per cent of all people living in conflict zones. Yet despite this, young people are too often excluded from processes to build peace. They’re mistrusted, ignored or underestimated. To ensure their inclusion in peacebuilding, sometimes we need to take a step back and first help young people change the way their communities and societies see and value them.

This week members of the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (WMC) network met with representatives from Commonwealth States, Lord Ahmad and Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex online to celebrate the work of women mediators and peacebuilders.

The Conciliation Resources team is proud to have completed our very first fundraising fitness challenge, Steps to Peace. It exceeded all expectations and raised over £12,000 to support our organisation’s vital peacebuilding work. 

Alicia Kuin has facilitated over 600 conflict processes, and as a 33-year old woman, she’s usually working in spaces dominated by older men. Twenty years after the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security, Alicia reflects on the challenges she experienced as a young female mediator and what she’s learning from colleagues around the world.

A year ago, a ground-breaking public exhibition opened in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Corridors of Conflict: Abkhazia 1989-1995 was the first of its kind – an exhibition focused on Georgian-Abkhaz relations, the years leading up to violent conflict in 1992-1993, and its consequences. How can exhibitions like this help deal with the past, with a view to transforming conflict for the future?

Women mediators are constantly finding innovative ways to bridge the peace gap in all spaces of mediation – within communities, nationally, and across borders to engage regionally and internationally. Through our work and research we know that women are there, and always have been. But 20 years on from the United Nation’s landmark resolution on women, peace and security, women for the most part remain unrecognised and invisible and are continually denied access to the peace table and decision-making spaces.