WHO WE ARE

We are a Danish-registered NGO working to build a more equitable global collaboration system centred on civic actors. We work with civic actors including civil society and movements to claim space, and with change agents within institutions, helping to strengthen the connective tissue that an equitable global collaboration ecosystem needs in order to grow.   

Our team is grounded in a shared commitment to advancing peace, freedom, justice, equity, and decolonial approaches to global cooperation. We believe in the possibility of systems beyond today’s dominant models – systems shaped by civic actors, collective imagination, and lived experience. 

We bring peacebuilding practice, and our approach combines long-term systems thinking with practical experimentation, grounded in global engagement and in the places we each call home. We see every context we are part of as ‘local’ and view working in our own environments as essential to understanding and contributing to broader systems change.

The Challenge

Global cooperation systems, from donor institutions to multilateral platforms, are failing to meet today’s overlapping crises.

Across the world, people are mobilising in response to conflict, inequality, climate disruption and shrinking civic space; however, these communities, movements and civic actors remain fragmented, under-resourced, and often disconnected from key global decision-making spaces.

At the same time, many established global systems struggle to adapt to fast-changing realities, with collaboration and decision-making structures often remaining centralised, inflexible or distant from the people most affected.

As a result, opportunities for bold, locally led and collaborative peacebuilding solutions are often missed. Civic leadership and knowledge rarely shape decisions at the scale they could, and promising, locally grounded approaches often lack the recognition, resources or access needed to grow.

Our Response

CSP’s response begins from a simple recognition: incremental change is not enough.

We work to co-create, co-build and test alternative ways of collaborating that challenge dominant peace and development models. This means developing early pathways and practical building blocks for collaboration grounded in civic agency, shared legitimacy and lived experience.

At the same time, we recognise the scale and inertia of the systems we engage with. We therefore work with reform-minded actors inside existing institutions who are questioning assumptions and seeking to shift practices, norms and relationships. This helps create space for more equitable forms of collaboration and connects emerging alternatives with opportunities for change.

Together, these efforts contribute to shifting how international cooperation is organised and justified. They help create conditions in which cross-border collaboration becomes more responsive, accountable and shaped by those most affected by conflict and crisis.

Across the world, people are mobilising in response to conflict, inequality, climate disruption and shrinking civic space. Communities, movements and civic actors are organising with creativity and determination, generating approaches grounded in lived experience. 

At the same time, many established global systems struggle to adapt to fast-changing realities or to share power in meaningful ways. Structures for collaboration and decision-making often remain centralised, inflexible or distant from the people most affected. As a result, civic leadership and knowledge rarely shape decisions at the scale they could, and promising, locally grounded approaches often lack the recognition, resources or access needed to grow. 

CSP’s response is rooted in the belief that today’s challenges cannot be addressed through incremental change alone. We work to co-create, co-build and test alternative ways of collaborating that challenge dominant peace and development models and show what more people-powered systems of global collaboration can look like in practice. This work focuses on developing early pathways and building blocks for collaboration that are grounded in civic agency, shared legitimacy and lived experience. 

At the same time and recognising the scale of the systems we are engaging with, we work alongside reform-minded actors within existing institutions. We engage with individuals and teams who are questioning established assumptions and seeking to shift practices, norms and relationships in ways that open space for more equitable forms of collaboration and accountability. This work helps connect emerging alternatives with opportunities for change inside the system.  

Together, these strands of work contribute to shifting the underlying logics of international cooperation. They help create conditions in which collaboration across borders becomes more responsive, accountable and shaped by the people most affected by conflict and crisis. 

Mie Roesdahl

Founder & Co-Director Strategy, Innovation and Finance

Mie Roesdahl

Founder & Co-Director Strategy, Innovation and Finance

Mie Roesdahl

Founder & Co-Director Strategy, Innovation and Finance

Meet the Team

Mie Roesdahl

Founder & Co-Director

Sweta Velpillay

Co-Director

Ralph Ellermann

Senior Programme Manager

Jasper Peet-Martel

Programme Manager

Christine Fast Lisby

Programme Assistant

Mathilde Wieland Thorsen

Programme Officer

Our Values

Dignity

We work to ensure people and communities are treated as whole individuals, not reduced to categories, roles or stakeholders. This means creating conditions where power and agency are respected, and where participation, safety and recognition are intentionally structured. We seek to ensure that engagement never comes at the cost of anyone’s dignity, time or security.

We recognise that historical and structural inequalities shape who can participate, influence decisions and access spaces and resources. Our work responds to these realities by adjusting how power, attention and resources are distributed, so civic actors and communities can engage on more equal footing.

We act in line with our values, even when it is uncomfortable or inconvenient. This means being honest about our role and limits, taking responsibility for our influence, and speaking up when practices are misaligned with our commitments. We avoid approaches that compromise people’s humanity or agency.

Walking the talk and Reciprocity

Values are not statements to uphold but practices to return to. Walking the talk means paying attention to how decisions are made, how resources flow, and how relationships are shaped in our everyday work. We try to align our ways of working with the futures we seek to support, knowing that this requires reflection, adjustment, and accountability over time. 

A core part of this practice is reciprocity. We understand collaboration as a two-way relationship, where learning, responsibility, and benefit move in multiple directions. We seek to avoid extractive ways of working by being attentive to what we take, what we contribute, and what we owe in the relationships we enter.  

Strategy and Reporting

Meet the Board