In an effort to expand the community of likeminded peers interested in systems change for locally-led peacebuilding and development, Conducive Space for Peace produces a monthly systems change brief. Check out the latest September brief by CSP Director Mie Roesdahl. Conducive Space for Peace was created with the aim of being bold and thinking differently […]

In an effort to expand the community of likeminded peers interested in systems change for locally-led peacebuilding and development, Conducive Space for Peace has just released its new monthly systems change brief. In the first brief, CSP Director Mie Roesdahl shares her personal reflections as well as  the latest thought development of Conducive Space for […]

Inspired by the natural wonders and how it holds complexity and simplicity in close encounters, we have  pondered on systems change in the global peacebuilding system – and recently consolidated our thinking in the piece “The Dragonfly Model: Systems Change to Strengthen Support for Locally-Led Peacebuilding ”. With many years of combined experience within the […]

23 percent of the world’s population currently lives in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, with violent conflicts reaching a higher rate globally than at any time in the past 30 years. This leaves us questioning whether the current ways of working in supporting peacebuilding is fit for purpose. Our new report, A Global System in Flux: […]

By Christian Cito, Programme Advisor, CSP The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably impacted our lives and continues to exert significant pressure on how we interact as humans. For local peacebuilders in fragile contexts, the pandemic has also severely disrupted locally-led peacebuilding, short-circuiting needed funding to support community-level peacebuilding efforts, and increasingly making it difficult for initiatives […]

“In the face of destruction, we are compelled to create.” (William Cleveland, 2008, Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines) The arts offer unique tools to address intractable conflicts and can help divided communities to creatively engage in constructive dialogues for healing and reconciliation. For our 2020 annual meeting in December, Conducive Space for […]

By Conducive Space for Peace, Humanity United and Peace Direct At the end of September, Peace Direct, Humanity United and Conducive Space for Peace held a second consultation on COVID-19 and local peacebuilding. Almost 100 peacebuilders from 67 countries joined the consultation over two days, discussing the impact of the pandemic on conflict and peacebuilding, […]

Two young South Sudanese peacebuilders have co-authored a publication that portrays both the immense challenges faced by South Sudanese women peacebuilders in the time of COVID-19 and the extra-ordinary power and potential these women hold for building peace even during difficult times. Sixteen young women peacebuilders have contributed their stories and Vicky Amal Pax Kamilo […]

On July 14th, 2020, the United Nations unanimously passed UNSCR 2535, an international policy framework advocating for greater youth participation in peacebuilding processes and humanitarian responses. To help unpack this resolution and its implications for youth-led peacebuilding, on July 25th CSP in collaboration with Peacemaker360 organized a live-streamed panel discussion with three young peacebuilders, Mridul Upadhyay(Asia Coordinator […]

During the Nordic Women Mediator’s meeting conducted on June 3rd and 4th 2020, Mie Roesdahl of Conducive Space for Peace is leading a group session on Women Peacebuilders on the Frontlines of the Covid-19 Crisis. Two wise, experienced and innovative women peacebuilders, Nomfundo Walaza of South Africa and Comfort Attah of Nigeria are sharing their […]

 As fears of the pandemic spreading in the Global South continue to expose vulnerabilities of local peacebuilding, by early April 2020 Peace Direct, Humanity United, and CSP conducted online consultations with 400 local peacebuilders from 60 countries to gage the impact of the pandemic on local peacebuilding. Subsequently, a report detailing the findings and recommendations […]

The spread of the novel COVID-19 virus in more than 135 countries has drastically disrupted people’s ways of life and has paralyzed world economies—exerting formidable pressures on governments and healthcare systems struggling to curb the daily increases of new cases. Italy, Spain, Iran, and the US are still the most hit by the pandemic. The […]

It is time for the peacebuilding community to join efforts in addressing the COVID-19 crisis. Let us especially support local peacebuilders in the Global South to better prepare for the spread of the pandemic and deal with it’s impacts in their communities. By Mie Roesdahl While the Covid-19 virus demands all our focus at this […]

Scattered fruit trees and flowers are struggling in the heat of the beginning dry season of Montes de Maria as we walk on the narrow path to the house of Narciso and Manuela. This region of Montes de Maria was one of the hardest hit by violence in the end of the 90s. Many people […]

On April 24th and 25th 2019, Conducive Space for Peace (CSP), in collaboration with Humanity United, hosted a two-day meeting in New York. The meeting brought together 35 thought and practice leaders from local and international peacebuilding organisations, UN agencies, universities and think tanks to share experiences on how to transform the international system of […]

By Mie Roesdahl, Conducive Space for Peace I recently met Gatwal Augustine Gatkuoth from South Sudan who works to empower youth in peacebuilding.  In our talk about peacebuilding he told me that he and his youth organisation are spending a lot of time writing proposals and struggling to meet donor requirements – but often failing. […]

By Alma Mirvic, Joint UN Regional Programme Coordinator, Bosnia Herzegovina. I came into the four-day workshop organized by the Conducive Space for Peace initiative with curiosity of mind, as part of a joint UN team. I walked away both with questions in my head and a conviction that we should not be concerned with numbers, […]

It was an intense end to an intense week. The young woman – she couldn’t have been more than 15 – looked at my colleague and I, and told us with a trembling voice, “I don’t understand why peace should be such a big deal. Peace should be natural, like air or water.” We were […]

Alex Shoebridge Peace Advisor Oxfam Ibis   There is a growing chorus calling for greater inclusivity and local ownership of peace and peacebuilding processes. The “choir” – so to speak – is a mix of both unexpected and expected actors, some who have been singing the song for a long time, and others that have […]

By Elise Ford Supporting people directly affected by conflict is often presented as a moral imperative: these are the actors that deserve our support.  But local peacebuilders are much more than that. Local and national actors working at the frontlines of peace are the only actors with the knowledge, relationships and legitimacy to foster lasting […]

By Mie Roesdahl More than 2 billion people live in fragile and conflict affected states today. By 2030 it is likely that most of the world’s poor will live in fragile and conflict affected states. This forecast corresponds with the increasing number of conflicts the world has witnessed throughout the last two decades. The number […]

By Mille Bojer During Geneva Peace Week 2018, the Conducive Space for Peace (CSP) Initiative has chosen to host an accelerator at the SDG Solution Space. The accelerator brings together 5 multi-stakeholder cohorts working in conflict-affected contexts on innovative practices involving international-national collaboration on peacebuilding. The idea of an “accelerator” originally comes from the startup […]

Udviklingsbistanden har ændret sig radikalt i de seneste 5-10 år. Der er ikke alene færre midler, men måden udviklingsprogrammer bliver gennemført på er helt anderledes i dag end for bare få år siden. Der sker  ikke kun forandringer i form af en ny rolle for det private erhvervsliv, i form af at tidligere fattige lande […]

While civilians are being killed in Aleppo expressions of frustration, despair, hopelessness, is flourishing. Why did the security council not manage to come to an agreement that mandated action at least for the protection of civilians? Why have nobody been willing to supply troops on the ground? Why did we not learn from history and […]