Advocating and educating on policies, laws, and funding to strengthen the peacebuilding field:
We achieve this by:
Developing and operationalizing a new vision for the peace and security sector
Through strategic consultations and workshops, AfP is rallying support for the peace and security sector and developing innovative approaches to conflict prevention. AfP works with members and partners to identify gaps and strengthen the field’s capacity to make peacebuilding more adaptive and successful amidst increasing strain on resources. See AfP’s policy-focused coalitions below.
Strengthening support and funding for peacebuilding and prevention
AfP expands the cadre of peacebuilding champions to secure increased and sustained funding for peacebuilding. We participate in and lead global networks and coalitions to advance peacebuilding in legislative, policy, and funding frameworks. AfP leverages its convening power to create shared messaging on why the public, donors, and all sectors should support peacebuilding efforts, while also building the capacity of the field to message across audiences and platforms, ultimately creating new supporters of and participants in peacebuilding.
Advancing peacebuilding in the United States
AfP’s Peacebuilding Starts at Home Initiative seeks to (1) educate and raise awareness on the drivers of instability and conflict in the U.S.; (2) develop and disseminate ways to explain how anyone can learn to build peace and prevent conflict in the U.S.; and (3) connect people to organizations that are working to build peace and prevent conflict in their communities and beyond.
AfP policy in the news
Notable Past Programs
Human Security +
The Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) program on human security worked to achieve a people-centered security strategy, which is a more successful, cost-effective, and sustainable national security strategy than traditional approaches. The program opened channels of communication between the Pentagon and local civil society organizations (CSOs) working to build human security from the ground up through conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
Like peacebuilding practitioners, women and men in the military see the complexities of conflict up close, and they often quickly recognize the value of peacebuilding approaches to addressing difficult policy problems overseas. As a result of years of outreach facilitating communication with civil society, military officials have shown strong interest in learning from the peacebuilding field. AfP staff were invited to give training courses, lectures, and workshops at the US Army War College, National Defense University, the Pentagon, and even in locations such as Afghanistan.
AfP’s Director of Human Security, Lisa Schirch, spearheaded a comprehensive, three-year project culminating in a first-ever handbook and online training curriculum, along with a compilation of case studies illustrating successful civil-military collaborations, and a policy brief outlining key guidelines for policymakers.
Learn more here.
Peace Rewire +
Re-Wiring the Brain for Peace, now known as an independent project called “Peace ReWire,” was a collaboration between neuroscientists, peacebuilding experts, and spiritual leaders, who have worked together to explore how to “rewire” the brain for peace. As a group, we have sought methods of countering the changes in the brain that occur under situations of violence, trauma, and war. This project studied how rituals, spiritual practices, and values that exist in every society serve not only to transform fear and anger on an individual level, but also act as conduits for positive social values and help spark collective change. The preparatory phase of this project was generously supported by the George Family Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace.
Peace ReWire currently works in collaboration with the Avielle Foundation on combining the power of neuroscience, spiritual and contemplative practice, and peacebuilding, to catalyze “inner peace,” and spark broad-scale social transformation An archive of Re-Wiring the Brain for Peace original page can be found here.
