A Special letter from afp’s executive director, liz hume

January 20, 2022

Dear Colleagues,

I want to start off by thanking the AfP Board of Directors for their tremendous vote of confidence by selecting me to lead this incredible network. I am thrilled and humbled by all the calls and notes from so many members and colleagues. Please know I will be reaching out for advice and support as AfP launches its new fieldbuilding strategy and tackles the world’s global violent conflict problem. As you all have heard me say many times, we have hit a 30-year high in violent global conflict. However, we do not have to accept that violent conflict is inevitable.

To kick off the launch of our new strategy and build collective action, AfP is thrilled to once again host in partnership with USIP PeaceCon@10: COVID, Climate, and Conflict: Rising to the Challenges of a Disrupted World on January 26 - 28, 2022. PeaceCon@10 celebrates its 10th year and this robust and growing community.

The agenda is exciting and powerful and I can’t wait to learn, participate, and collaborate with you all and other key leaders and experts from within and outside our field. Please also join us on January 27th from 9:30 to 10:30 (EST) to help us with a social media campaign to demonstrate the power of a shared message frame from peacebuilders all over the world

AfP recently welcomed 7 new members, bringing our community to 159 members strong and growing. The new members are

  • Creating Friendships for Peace

  • Children’s Peace Initiative Kenya

  • Ideos Institute

  • Post Conflict Research Center (PCRC)

  • Peace of Art

  • Tetra Tech

  • The PeacemakerCorps Foundation, Kenya (PCFK)

AfP’s presence on social media is powerful and increasing, with more than 23,000 followers on Twitter, more than 19,000 followers on LinkedIn, more than 13,000 followers on Facebook, and a growing Instagram presence that currently contains more than 1,600 followers. AfP also continues its “Peace: We Build It!” podcast, which explores critical issues in peacebuilding with leading voices from the field, with new episodes on the situation in Israel/Palestine and the conflict in Ethiopia. The series has been downloaded more than 1,000 times and is available on our website and major platforms, including Spotify and Google Podcasts. AfP is also actively engaging the press, staying on top of critical developments in peacebuilding and covered in publications such as Radio Free Europe, CBS Face the Nation, Voice of America, and DevEx. Let us know if you need assistance to amplify your communications or would like us to work on an issue that needs to be elevated in the press.

AfP continues to raise the bar by leading the peacebuilding field to embrace a more rigorous evaluative culture to better prove impact and understand what works. During the past four months, we are continuing to develop and release new research and learning products and host engaging peer learning events. We recently initiated AfP’s new Research Talks with L&E blog that summarizes new research that our technical experts are reading. Key findings are synthesized into short blog posts and discuss key implications for the field—from connecting new research to programming, practice, or other key endeavors. Join us in our bi-monthly blog posts and read along with us! With 1,800+ YouTube views, AfP’s #CreativityInCrisis video series features ten videos and three more in production that highlight innovation and creative DM&E solutions to challenges encountered in the peacebuilding field.

At PeaceCon@10, the L&E team is once again hosting dedicated tracts for Evidence, Interreligious Action (IRA), and regional issues to reserve space for critical conversations with peacebuilding practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. This year’s Regional MEL Sessions will include regionally focused topics from Thailand, East Africa, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the Middle East, and a Global data collection session. These sessions are co-hosted with the help of local organizations from respective geographic regions and will highlight regionally relevant peacebuilding issues, in a time slot that most aligns with the region.

We have big things coming your way in 2022 as part of the L&E portfolio. Keep your eye out for the expanded digital Eirene Peacebuilding Database® in 2022! Eirene features 3,300+ peacebuilding indicators and is currently being expanded through the second scraping of 2,129 new resources published since 2018. Also be ready to join us as part of our Inter-Religious Action in Peacebuilding portfolio supported by GHR for a Multi-Part Research and Engagement Initiative throughout 2022 to advocate for greater funding and support for IRA, more inclusive policies, and a more holistic understanding of what constitutes relevant, trusted, and robust knowledge and evidence to build sustainable peace.

AfP continues to advance policy and legislative reforms through evidence-based advocacy and education. We know everyone is impatient but we have been assured that the U.S. government will announce the Global Fragility Act selected priority countries/regions soon.

In Afghanistan: AfP undertook extensive advocacy to urge OFAC to issue comprehensive OFAC licenses and guidance for U.S. based or funded NGOs for activities including peacebuilding, atrocity and violence prevention, education, and stabilization to facilitate the delivery of vital aid. In late December, AfP was thrilled that OFAC issued additional licenses.

AfP recently issued a statement and press release in coordination with a coalition of leading humanitarian organizations and artists including Pearl Jam, Tom Morello, Amanda Seyfried, Thomas Sadoski, Global Citizen, and Josh Klinghoffer, urging the White House to address Afghanistan’s looming humanitarian catastrophe and the economic drivers of the crisis by facilitating banking access for Afghan civilians.

AfP and a coalition of women's rights advocates, humanitarian and peacebuilding organizations, and academic institutions called for immediate intervention to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan in a joint policy brief, Lifesaving Humanitarian Response for Women and Girls in Afghanistan: an Urgent Call for U.S. Action and a related press release.

To address increasing conflict dynamics in the United States, AfP is applying the lessons learned from decades of peacebuilding and conflict prevention work abroad. AfP and 28 organizations recently sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Appropriations in support of the House-passed Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations to allocate $30 million to support community-based approaches to justice and reconciliation in the U.S. We are grateful for the overwhelming support for our U.S. Democracy survey and we will be releasing our results shortly with next steps.

AfP recently issued a number of key policy briefs: AfP recently released Strengthening Locally-Led Peacebuilding: From Policy to Action that addresses how to practically implement locally-led peacebuilding. AfP recently released a revised COVID-19 policy, Integrating Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding into the Global COVID-19 Response. Prior to COP26 AfP released a policy brief titled, The Climate Change Crisis: Ensuring Integration of Conflict Prevention and Climate Change in the U.S. Foreign Policy and Development Assistance. AfP is revising this policy and is working closely with USAID to ensure its final climate strategy integrates conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

AfP’s continues its commitment to DEI. AfP conducted research in late 2017 on the diversity in the peacebuilding community at the Board and top senior leadership positions. Recently AfP redid this research and found US-based AfP members have made limited progress in increasing the representation of women and people of color in leadership positions (CEO and Board chairs). However, there was an increase of women and people of color on the Board. AfP is launching a new monthly member spotlight for “Champions of Change” to amplify organizations and initiatives that advance DEI in the peacebuilding community. We also are developing a DEI Digest with extensive reports and other resources on best practices and lessons learned.

In closing, peace doesn’t just happen; we have to build it, and AfP is grateful for your support and partnership.

All my best, Liz

Liz Hume,
Executive Director
Alliance for Peacebuilding