Mission
Establish a ‘venture capital fund for peace’ that will find, grow and replicate the best locally-led peace-building initiatives around the world.
Rationale
Hundreds of deserving, locally-led peace-building initiatives around the world need funding – but where and how will the money (in short supply) have the greatest long-term impact?
The Strategy
A Global Fund for Local Peace will be set up to find and support proven, locally-led approaches that experts think could be scaled up to make a real difference – and that could then be adapted to other difficult areas around the world. Together, the process will help bring about a systemic change in how humanity deals with conflict. For example:
• Civilian Early-Warning and Rapid Response Teams to provide emergency resources when violence threatens
• Training in mediation and conflict resolution for teenage gang members that reduces violence and helps them reintegrate back into society
• Local Peace Councils that solve ethnic conflicts before they grow, spread and become civil wars
• Security and justice programmes that empower women and girls
• Reconciliation projects that truly heal communities after a conflict, making them vibrant and productive again
And More
Projected outcomes by 2016: At least 15 local civilian initiatives supported sustainably over four years, providing bullet-proof evidence of the cost-effectiveness of locally-led peace-building – and leading to a permanent Global Fund for Local Peace
Project Leader
Eddy Canfor Dumas, Co-Director of Engi and co-ordinator of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues, recently described by a UK government minister as ‘one of the most important groups in Parliament’