The warming of the planet and the resulting changes to the natural environment pose numerous threats to humanity. Increased competition for resources like fertile land and fresh water is already disrupting societies and uprooting entire communities – exacerbating current conflicts and fuelling new ones. Responses to the climate crisis themselves, can add to existing tensions and create further conflict.
The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) is a partnership between the United Nations, civil society and Member States. It works to mobilise urgently needed financing and hard-fought recognition for local women-led and women’s rights organisations in crisis-affected countries across the globe. Visit the WPHF website here.
Ambassador Marc Otte acts as Senior Advisor to Conciliation Resources EU EU/mediatEUr on the Middle East and North Africa region; as well as advising on strategy and operations. Before his retirement, Marc Otte was a Belgian diplomat, who served in Washington DC and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and was Consul General in Los Angeles, as well as Ambassador to Israel. He was also Director for strategic affairs and disarmament and Director for policy planning at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Catherine Turner is an academic, trainer and consultant who advocates for greater use of inclusive mediation and peacemaking practice through research and policy engagement. She is currently Associate Professor of International Law at Durham University (UK), and the Deputy Director of the Durham Global Security Institute (DGSI). She has published extensively in the fields of peace mediation and transitional justice, focusing on promoting more inclusive approaches to peace and justice in her home Northern Ireland and internationally.
Alex Attwood was an elected representative for the constituency of West Belfast in Northern Ireland (NI) for 31 years up to 2017 serving first on the City Council and then the Northern Ireland Assembly. He was twice a Minister in the NI Government (Social Development 2010/11 and Environment 2011/13.) He was heavily involved both in multiple negotiations following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and on its implementation from issues of law, order and justice to legacy, from good governance to programmes of government and reform of state institutions including policing.
Mike recently retired from full time work with Oxfam GB. He joined Oxfam GB as a lobbyist in 1987 and went on to work in the legal team where he advised trustees, management and staff on regulatory and governance issues and was Oxfam's primary contact with the Charity Commission and other regulatory bodies. In the 2000s, he was a board member of Amnesty International UK Section and a trustee of AI's Charitable Trust and a member of their finance sub-committee. He has also been a member of and for five years chair of the Charity Tax Group.
Dr. Michelle Parlevliet is a practitioner-scholar working on the nexus of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, human rights and social justice in various contexts and capacities since 1995, nowadays based in the Netherlands.
Dr. Sophia Close is an Associate with Conciliation Resources since December 2021. Prior to that Sophia was the Head of Gender and Peacebuilding for Conciliation Resources for five years leading on gender, peace and security policy engagement, research, analysis and programme design and delivery.
The Central African Republic (CAR) has had a long and turbulent history of violent conflict and political instability. With more than three decades of recurrent violent conflict and socio-political crisis, all young people in CAR have spent most of their lives in the shadow of violence.
