A Letter from AfP's Executive Director, Liz Hume

June 10, 2026

Dear Members,

At a time of record-breaking global violent conflict and the deterioration of global peacefulness for the 12th consecutive year, it is easy to be cynical, because the data tells us that war is outpacing peacebuilding. AfP remains committed to building and advancing the peacebuilding field, and we are using this time of major disruption as an opportunity to think big about how we advocate to global policymakers and the public to develop and demand a peace-centered foreign policy and assistance approach in the U.S. and globally. We were inspired by our recent book talk with Dr. Gary Slutkin, author of The End of Violence: Eliminating the World’s Most Dangerous Epidemic, which explored how trust and peacebuilding can spread contagiously.  

To achieve this ambitious goal, AfP launched the Future of Peace and Security Coalition, and is developing a “Future of Peace and Security Playbook” that outlines the why, what, and how. If you are interested in working with the Coalition, please let us know. I recently spoke at the launch of Devex’s The Aid Report’s new publication on the impact of conflict prevention and peacebuilding program terminations, where I stated the field can use this period of flux as an opportunity to “reorganize and transform [the U.S. foreign policy and assistance architecture] and fix what was broken and…prioritize conflict prevention and peacebuilding.” In March, AfP partnered with the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and its Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies to host a full-day conference on the future of American peacebuilding. I said during a morning panel, “As terrible as this has been [referencing cuts to foreign assistance and the sweeping termination of peacebuilding offices and personnel], we have to see that there’s an opportunity to rebuild it in a way that we’re centering and prioritizing conflict prevention in our policies, laws, and strategies.” 

While AfP is a leader in advocacy in the U.S., we are also a global organization, and I recently returned from Geneva, where I attended the Steering Group meeting for the International Dialogue for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS) with the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF) donors and the G7+. The government of Switzerland recently took over as Chair, and civil society is working in partnership with the IDPS to catalyze peacebuilding through responsive action, expanded partnerships, and tangible impact. I am thrilled the Swiss government stepped up to lead the IDPS and pull us together to be bolder, faster, and more adaptive. 

While we are looking to the future, we continue to work on keeping conflict prevention and peacebuilding U.S. foreign assistance accounts at the same levels—and even increase them where possible—while also advocating for fixes in laws and policies. In early February, President Trump signed into law the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs (NSRP) appropriations bill. While topline funding was 16 percent below FY25 levels, following a significant amount of hard work by AfP and its partners, Congress showed strong bipartisan support for peacebuilding funding, including by providing $108 million for the Prevention and Stabilization Fund, $112.5 million for Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), and $6 million for atrocity prevention. To achieve similar success in FY27, AfP submitted more than 600 requests to 96 offices, hosted dozens of bipartisan meetings with Congressional offices, sent a sign-on letter endorsed by 26 organizations, and submitted written public testimony to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. While the House’s proposed FY27 NSRP bill’s topline is $47.32 billion—6% below the FY26 enacted levels—peacebuilding and prevention accounts received funding levels similar to those provided in FY26, including the Prevention and Stabilization Fund, WPS, and atrocity prevention.

However, we are not naive, and even if the funding is appropriated, conflict expertise in the State Department is critical. AfP supported the development of H.R. 7052, the Conflict Prevention Act, co-sponsored by Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA-51) and Michael McCaul (R-TX-10), which would establish a Center for Conflict Analysis, Planning, and Prevention within the Department of State. The Act passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee in January, and AfP is actively working to push its advancement on the House floor and in the Senate. 

AfP’s Digital Peacebuilding Community of Practice and Digital Peacebuilding Policy Integration Hub hosted convenings on the use of deliberative technologies in early warning early response networks, digital atrocity risks, and organizational best practices for use of AI. AfP hosted the third annual Digital Peacebuilding Expo with the Council on Technology and Social Cohesion and Search for Common Ground, which explored how technology design can move away from merely mitigating harms toward the intentional promotion of trust, collaboration, and peace. Please find the recordings of the Americas slot here and of the Asia slot here. In April, AfP and Mediators Beyond Borders International hosted an interactive townhall with Euda on guardrails for the use and integration of AI into peacebuilding and conflict prevention. If you’d like to further explore how your organization can safely and effectively use AI to advance its work in a time of diminished resources, while also ensuring AI technologies channel peacebuilding best practices, please contact Nick Zuroski. 

AfP’s Prevention and Protection Working Group (PPWG), now spanning almost 500 members, continues to grow and advance the atrocity prevention agenda, working on the regional atrocity and accountability implications of the current Iran conflict and increasing risks of full-fledged conflict and mass atrocities in other regions, including South Sudan and Sudan. PPWG is now preparing a shadow report in anticipation of the U.S. Government’s late submission of the annual report required by the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act. In October, AfP is hosting a workshop at George Mason University’s retreat center, Point of View, on U.S. atrocity prevention and response efforts, and looking forward, how to strengthen the legal and policy framework in the U.S. and beyond. AfP applauds the European Union recently stepping up on atrocity prevention by, following the change of government in Hungary, imposing sanctions on four Israeli organizations and three individual settlers accused of violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. AfP has long advocated for bilateral and regional governments to impose sanctions on settlers committing violence, and encourages the EU to continue to lead in this capacity. 

As Secretariat of the U.S. Civil Society Working Group on WPS (CSWG), AfP continues to regularly convene its 60+ members to advance the WPS Agenda in the U.S. and around the world. AfP is collecting lessons learned and challenges in implementing the bipartisan U.S. WPS Act to ensure the Administration meets the requirements of the current law, and make recommendations on how to strengthen future legislation and strategies globally.  

As the UN elects a new Secretary-General, we are advocating strongly for the UN to reform and get back to the basics of peacemaking and peacebuilding, and there is no better time to start advocating for this than during the first annual UN Peacebuilding Week starting June 22nd. AfP is launching the “#FutureofPeace Looks Like” campaign to highlight how AfP and its members are working to prevent violent conflict. Join the campaign today. AfP, The TAP Network, Saferworld, and the Baha'i International Community are co-hosting a hybrid event on Tuesday, June 23rd at 10am ET exploring threats to civic space and recommendations for the UN and donors. Register here. The same day, I’ll be participating as a panelist in a side event hosted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York on the future of U.S. peace and conflict prevention policy, as well as a closed working session assessing the current policy landscape and opportunities for joint action to center peacebuilding. In recent weeks, AfP helped launch the Voices of SDG16+ 2026 Campaign. We also supported the drafting of the 2026 Civil Society Declaration on SDG16+, and will be presenting it at the 2026 SDG16 Conference in New York later this month. 

AfP’s Building Peace Economies at Scale initiative (BPES) is working to understand how we can better overcome the fears, languages, and cultures of peacebuilding and business communities to align for-profit investments with peace outcomes. BPES hosted a launch of the new report, Unlocking the Peace Premium, which highlights successful business contributions to violence reduction, social cohesion, and governance, while examining cautionary cases where well-intentioned investments inadvertently exacerbated tensions. 

As political violence in the U.S. is greatly increasing, with “violent populism” becoming mainstream among millions of Americans on both the right and the left, AfP is researching programs that promote  pluralism to understand what is working and not working; the findings will be publicized in our Eirene Peacebuilding Database. AfP’s Peacebuilding Starts at Home initiative is working to try and jumpstart conversations throughout communities to make the case for conflict prevention in the U.S. and globally. I had the opportunity to have a fascinating conversation with Adam Kahane, author of Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust, which is critical for all of us, especially those in the U.S. 

I was interviewed in the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding’s brief, The Strategic Blind Spot: How Neglecting Peacebuilding Undermines Global Security, where I emphasized how the field must better explain what peacebuilding is and why it matters. AfP held a discussion with award-winning editorial and content strategy leader, Hatice Soyal, on how peacebuilding organizations can create clear, accessible messaging about their work to gain positive media coverage. As part of its Future of Peace and Security coalition, AfP organized a subgroup focused on the social change component of the initiative, which will seek to develop a unified, widely amplified, and sustainable narrative change that raises public support for peacebuilding and prevention at home and abroad. If you would like to get involved in this effort, please reach out to Nick Zuroski. 

AfP’s social media presence and following continue to grow steadily, and we are proud to have reached 11,300 followers on Instagram and passed 26,600 followers on X. Follow us on X, BlueSky, Threads, and Instagram. To have your work amplified on AfP’s social media, please share with Maria Tata and include relevant links and a short blurb. 

As always, we are inspired by and thankful for our resilient members working with diminished resources across all bilateral donors to continue the much needed-work of peacebuilding. Our network is growing, with almost 300 organizational members and over 200 individual members strong. To continue to meet the moment of the changing peacebuilding landscape, we encourage anyone no longer associated with an organization to become an AfP individual member. Join us!

All my best,

Liz Hume
Executive Director
Alliance for Peacebuilding