This briefing note is the CSP contribution to the ongoing process of review and reform of the UN peacebuilding architecture, inspired by the collective wisdom of the many actors with whom we have worked. It presents five actionable recommendations in the short to medium term and three perspectives for transformational changes needed to reimagine the UN for a new era. It is crafted with an acute awareness of the ambitious reform agenda set forth in the UN secretary-general’s New Agenda for Peace and the commitments made by UN member states in the Pact for the Future. They signal a renewed push to modernise multilateralism, strengthen global governance and ensure peacebuilding efforts are suitable for the complex world of today. The recommendations and perspectives in this Brief are intended to support the translation of the commitments into concrete, inclusive and meaningful changes that strengthen peacebuilding efforts worldwide.

Explore the RESPACE scenarios! Click here to find four thought-provoking stories of what future global collaboration for sustainable peace could look like.

Drawing upon the experiences and perspectives of primarily local civil society organisations, activists and their international counterparts, the report provides lessons and recommendations for supporting effective and sustainable peacebuilding and development. The report also contributes to ongoing discussions on localisation and decolonisation agendas, working to achieve a fairer distribution of power and advancing local leadership, thereby fostering more equitable partnerships and solidarity in international aid.

This learning note consolidates some of the innovative practices taking place within the aid system by different organisations and hopes to inspire all actors and institutions to learn from one another on concrete ways for changing the international system to better enable local leadership. In supporting systems change for local leadership, there is great potential in unlocking learning on practice innovations as one critical element in pursuing institutional and broader systems change, including structural and attitudinal change. In the coming months CSP will be hosting a series of events for deepening our shared learning and reflection on changing the international system for enabling local leadership and equitable partnerships.

What is the role of individuals from where we stand to drive #systemschange for local leadership?

Check out the first of a series of reflection notes where we reflect on how people drive systems change for local leadership and equitable partnership in peacebuilding and development. We reflect on the important roles we all can play to unlock system change and specifically the role of those working ‘inside’ international organisations.

What are strategies civil society organisations can take to integrate bottom-up peacebuilding across the humanitarian-development-peace HDP Nexus to strengthen outcomes of humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding programming?

Enhancing international support to local civil society organisations in conflict-affected contexts is increasingly recognised as critical to sustainable peacebuilding. Currently, too little peacebuilding and development funds reach local actors, and strengthening the quality of support can enable space for local leadership. The shorter-term, top-down, and externally driven engagements have not created the desired results for sustainable conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and development. Therefore, Conducive Space for Peace has since 2016 been developing thinking on and action for systems change to enable space for locally-led peacebuilding and development better.

We are excited to launch our latest publication – “The Dragonfly Model: Systems Change to Strengthen Support for Locally-Led Peacebuilding”. Emerging from Conducive Space for Peace’s experience of working with local peacebuilding and addressing challenges facing locally-led peacebuilding globally, this ‘model’ is created to inspire further thinking and understanding of systems change to enhance the space for locally-led peacebuilding.

After 5 years of listening and pondering about the global peacebuilding system and locally-led peacebuilding, we have during the last couple of months finally consolidated our thinking into this report, “A Global System in Flux: Pursuing Systems Change for Locally-Led Peacebuilding”. With violent conflict reaching historic highs, we take the temperature on the societal trends, the state of the global peacebuilding system, and the current approaches to systems change and locally-led peacebuilding.

COVID-19 has hastened our use of technology and moved our lives almost wholly online. We have become more reliant on technology in everyday life. For peacebuilders, their experiences have been similar.

In 2020, Shift Power for Peace launched the Digital Inclusion Fund to support local communities across the world, with funding to pivot their work online.

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 and Ajwok Mary Valentino have consolidated the insights into this important piece of work.

In our latest report Conducive Space for Peace distils the insights of more than 450 peacebuilders who during April, May and June 2020 engaged in consultations on the implications of the COVID-19 crisis for funding to local peacebuilding. Through virtual conversations, online platform sharing, livestreamed dialogues, group consultations, and a survey involving peacebuilders from more than 60 countries, Conducive Space for Peace explores the shifting funding landscape as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis.

We asked 400 peacebuilders from around the world: How have your lives and peacebuilding work been affected by the #COVID19 pandemic? Today we launch our new report on ‘COVID-19 and the impact on local peacebuilding’ produced in a collaboration between Conducive Space for Peace, Humanity United and Peace Direct, where we share the input from local peacebuilders.

On April 24th and 25th 2019, Conducive Space for Peace, 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 support to peacebuilding, and especially how to strengthen the space for local agency and power in peacebuilding. This report is produced on the basis of reflections shared by the participants prior to the meeting, notes taken during sessions and group work, flipcharts and visual materials produced during the meeting as well as responses to the online evaluation conducted after the meeting. We have done our best to let the text reflect the insights and opinions expressed during the meeting as directly as possible.

This note summarises the lessons learned by the team behind the Conducive Space for Peace (CSP) initiative during its ‘incubator phase’, from June 2017 to January 2019. The note focuses on lessons learned during this phase in relation to challenges we are trying to address, the scope for systems change, and the approaches that are likely to be conducive for change. The synthesis is based on 43 learning documents generated throughout the incubator. The note summarises lessons learned, includes a compilation of proposed implications of the learnings, and finally a section of reflections, sparked by the learning process.