2014 Annual Conference Report Exploring New Frontiers in Peacebuilding

May 21 to 23, 2014

Washington, DC

Photo Credit: United States Institute of Peace ©2014

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Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 2

Conflict & Fragility ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................... 3

Managing Complex Systems and Designing for Peace ................................................................................ 5

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................... 6

Storytelling .................................................................................................................................................... 7

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................... 8

Funders and Peacebuilding ........................................................................................................................... 9

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................... 9

Technology and Peacebuilding ................................................................................................................... 10

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................. 10

Urban Violence and Cross-Border Criminal Activity ................................................................................. 11

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................. 11

Women and Peacebuilding ......................................................................................................................... 12

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................. 12

The Next Generation of Peacebuilders ....................................................................................................... 13

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................. 13

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 15

Relevant Sessions: .................................................................................................................................. 15

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Executive Summary

Between May 21st and 23

rd, the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP), in partnership with the United States

Institute of Peace (USIP), hosted its 2014 Annual Conference, with the theme of Exploring New Frontiers

in Peacebuilding. The conference was our largest ever, attracting 450 registrants, AfP brought together

dynamic, creative and pioneering speakers, all of whom highlighted important emerging trends in

peacebuilding, and motivated participants to engage actively in dialogue throughout the conference. The

conference highlighted innovative peacebuilding tools and created a platform for members and

participants to connect and collaborate in diverse initiatives. Participants addressed many challenges and

opportunities for the peacebuilding field, and identified strategies to capture the field’s impact.

Key themes included innovation in peacebuilding, and new systems approaches to complexity. Keynote

Speaker Asi Burak, Founder and President of Games for Change, gave a galvanizing presentation on the

use of gaming as a tool for peacebuilding. Asi challenged us to imagine the potential of using games to

instill critical peacebuilding skills in the minds of today’s youth, and how that could influence

future peace efforts. Evaluation experts addressed how monitoring and evaluation should not only

improve the field’s learning culture, strengthen accountability, and reframe the policy discourse, but also

sharpen the Theories of Change that drive our work.

Top executives from USIP, the U.S Global

Leadership Coalition, and the Leo Burnett

advertising agency, discussed the challenges of

creating messaging around peace, and

“selling peace” to skeptical and diffuse

audiences. And in what was certainly a first

during an AfP conference, Kiran Singh Sirah,

President of the International Storytelling

Center – and a new AfP member – delivered a

slam poetry reading while wearing his kilt.

Melanie Greenberg discussed the challenges of peace and diplomacy in Africa with Ambassador Johnnie

Carson, Ambassador Princeton Lyman, and former Senator Russell Feingold. The panel, punctuated with

stories and insights into the dynamics behind the headlines in South Sudan, the Great Lakes, and Nigeria,

highlighted the tensions around elections, the values that American diplomats bring to

peacebuilding, and the role of civil society in resolving complex conflict challenges. Later,

representatives from two US government agencies, a Guatemalan diplomat, and an academic, spoke about

the rise in urban violence and cross-border criminal activity, which are challenging traditional

peacebuilding paradigms. As conflict driven by criminal entrepreneurship explodes, we must counter

it with new tools, partnerships and human security approaches.

Presidents from three leading foundations – the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund

and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund – joined us for a lively and candid conversation. They stressed that

foundations no longer fund just great ideas, but great ideas that work, and encouraged grantees to share

stories of failure as well as success, to bolster our collective understanding and impact in building

sustainable peace. And finally, representatives from academia, and the nonprofit sector and private

sectors, helped outline different paths to the peacebuilding profession for a packed room of young

professionals and students. They stressed that the field is vast, and many young people may not land

directly within the peacebuilding profession itself; rather, they suggested how students could use

their conflict resolution skills in any number of related contexts.

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Conflict & Fragility

Introduction:

Conflicts raging in South Sudan and CAR, ongoing tension in Afghanistan, and shifting pockets of

violence in Central America highlight the need for better understanding of the relationship between

conflict and fragility, This is a key theme of negotiations at the United Nations on the post-Millennium

Development Goals, and an ongoing focus of the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States. The

conference featured a diverse set of speakers on topics of conflict and fragility, ranging from a former

ambassador to a professor from Beijing University. These panelists illuminated the intersectionality of

conflict and fragility in a number of different contexts, and ultimately opened the floor for dynamic

dialogue between conference participants.

Panel Summaries:

With former US Ambassadors to key countries in Africa, and the current US Special Envoy for the Great

Lakes and the Democratic Republic of Congo, AfP President and CEO Melanie Greenberg discussed the

challenges of peace and diplomacy in Africa. The panel explored the complexity of the conflicts in South

Sudan, the Great Lakes and Nigeria, and discussed the challenges and opportunities presented by very

important upcoming elections in those states. (NOTE: we do not have the notes for this session yet, so

we may need to revise/add language).

The panel titled “Exploring Linkages between UN Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding” continued the theme

of complexity of maintaining peace and security in turbulent conflict regions. Panelists emphasized the

importance of simultaneous peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts for success within conflict-affected

and fragile areas. They reminded the audience to continuously monitor conflicting priorities between

peacebuilding and statebuilding, because this conflict can often hamper peacekeeping efforts. Peter Van

Tuijl, Executive Director of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC),

further discussed challenges of balancing peacebuilding with security during his 5 minute Flash Talk on

GPPAC’s work in Korea.

The Conflict and Fragility Affinity Group linked to InterAction’s Conflict and Fragility Working Group,

held a meeting during the conference featuring Ibrahim Osman, Executive Director of SEDHURO.

SEDHURO is a peacebuilding civil society organization based in Somalia, and Mr. Osman’s presentation

provided another opportunity for conference participants to obtain an intimate understanding of how

conflict and fragility issues play out in in areas with complex governance and development challenges.

His discussion touched on many points of the previous conflict and fragility sessions: international

cooperation to address conflict triggers, government legitimacy, and the role of civil society in making

inroads for peace.

Conclusion:

Overarching themes of these panels were: the tension between systemic roots of conflict and short term

interventions, competing needs on the ground for a paucity of resources, and a disconnect between Global

North solutions and Global South realities.

Relevant Sessions:

Peacebuilding and Diplomacy: Challenges and Opportunities in African Conflicts, Notes, Video

o Ambassador Princeton Lyman, Senior Advisor, USIP

o Russell Feingold, Special Envoy for the Great Lakes and the Democratic Republic of Congo,

US Department of State

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o Ambassador Johnnie Carson, Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for African

Affairs

o Moderator: Melanie Greenberg, President and CEO, AfP

Exploring Linkages between UN Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding, Notes

o Victoria K. Holt, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, the US Bureau of International

Organization Affairs

o Alison Giffen, Senior Associate, co-director of Future of Peace Operations Program, Stimson

Center

o Peter Yeo, Vice President for Public Policy, United Nations Foundation and the Better World

Campaign

o Dr. Liu Tiewa, Lecturer, Beijing Foreign Studies University

o Oliver Ulrich, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations

o Moderator: George Lopez, Vice President, Academy for International Conflict Management

and Peacebuilding, USIP

Five-Minute Flash Talk o Peter van Tuijl, Executive Director, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict

Conflict & Fragility Affinity Group Meeting o Ibrahim Osman, Executive Director of SEDHURO, a peacebuilding civil society organization

based in Somalia

o Facilitator: John Filson, Alliance for Peacebuilding

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Managing Complex Systems and Designing for Peace

Introduction:

As set forth in AfP’s Peacebuilding 2.0 Report, the notion of peacebuilding is broad and complex. The

term peacebuilding can be applied before, during, and after a conflict as well as across sectors such as:

humanitarian aid, democracy building, and environmental impact, for example. How can practitioners

understand peacebuilding as a concept, as a career, and as a viable solution to conflict? The panels

surrounding complex systems at the AfP 2014 conference addressed this question through a ‘systems’

lens: seeking to understand conflict situations as intricate ‘systems,’ a web of interlinking actors. From a

variety of angles, panelists outlined innovative visuals, impactful evaluation tools, and design techniques

to tackle – and embrace – the complexity of ‘peace.’

Panel Summaries:

The panel titled “Engaging the Complexity in Peacebuilding: a Systems Perspective,” provided

conference participants with four unique visual and theoretical strategies for understanding a ‘systems’

approach to peacebuilding. Each panelist was tasked with providing the questions that people should be

asking about the contexts within which they work, and the panelists recommended tools and practices to

better answer or engage with those questions. The panelists encouraged peacebuilding practitioners to

embrace complexity, and to focus on the data that both literally and figuratively illustrate the

problem and the solution.

The Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium session emphasized how monitoring and evaluation of

peacebuilding should not only focus on improving the learning culture, strengthening downward

accountability, and reframing the policy discourse, but also on the Theory of Change that drives

peacebuilding work. While a systems approach to peacebuilding may help untangle the array of actors in

a conflict and create a more holistic understanding of a complex conflict situation, monitoring and

evaluation practices focus energies on designing effective solutions and measuring impact.

Ann Pendleton-Jullian’s brilliant dinner speech, entitled “Managing Complexity and Designing for

Peace,” highlighted the new frontiers of a fully networked world. Her talk centered on using ecology

theory, which involves studying ecosystems and the interdependencies within them, as a framework for

engaging with the complexity of contemporary problems. Ms. Pendleton-Jullian explained that there can

be no outright solutions in complex systems because every action or intervention will change the system

itself. Instead she elaborated on several approaches with which people can begin moving problems from

the complex to the complicated and making partial solutions. Responding to her ideas, discussant Richard

O’Neill highlighted the importance of creating interoperability both within the peacebuilding field and

across different sectors.

From a design perspective, both flash-talks given by Matthew Scott of World Vision International and

Alexandra Toma of the Peace and Security Funders Group illuminated the themes of these earlier

speakers. Matthew Scott discussed cross-cutting fatigue and advocated for both stories and data. He also

highlighted the integration of peacebuilding development. Alexandra Toma explained how funders are

focused on local peacebuilders and how prevention is a priority.

The Systems and Complexity Affinity Group tied this overall conference theme together, and it allowed

conference participants to share their work within this broader conference conversation. Group members

discussed “Big Learning,” their own projects, tools, and education on applications of systems and

complexity theory for peacebuilding.

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Conclusion:

Learning how to engage effectively with complexity will be invaluable for achieving lasting, sustainable

peacebuilding impacts on 21st century conflicts, particularly in an increasingly networked world. The AfP

conference featured some valuable discussions on how peacebuilders can use systems thinking and

complexity theory to improve their work with regards to design, implementation and learning. AfP is now

working to put systems sensitivity and interoperability at the heart of all of its programming, with a grand

vision of creating infrastructures that can link disparate programs for macro-level change, apply lessons

learned at a broader scale, and generate cultural norms and foster buy-in for peacebuilding across

geographic and disciplinary boundaries—all while keeping local voices at the forefront.

Relevant Sessions:

Engaging the Complexity in Peacebuilding: A Systems Perspective Notes, Video

o Robert Ricigliano, Chair, Alliance for Peacebuilding

o Scott Field, Visiting Scholar, University of California Berkeley

o Glenda Eoyang, Executive Director, Human Systems Dynamics Institute, Glenda Eoyang’s

Presentation, Further Materials from Glenda Eoyang

o Nate Haken, Senior Associate, Fund for Peace, Nate Haken’s Presentation

o Moderator: Karen Grattan, Senior Operations Research Analyst, Group W, Inc.

Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium: Addressing the Challenges of Evaluation, Notes

o Peter Woodrow, Executive Director, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects

o Moderator: Melanie Kawano-Chiu, Director, Learning and Evaluation, Alliance for

Peacebuilding

Managing Complexity and Designing for Peace, Notes

o Ann Pendleton-Jullian, Former Director, Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State

University; Distinguished Visiting Professor, President's Office, Georgetown University

o Discussant: Richard P. O’Neill, Founder and President, The Highlands Group

Five-Minute Flash Talks

o Matthew Scott, Director, Peacebuilding, World Vision International

o Andrew Tomlinson, Director, Quaker United Nations Office of New York

Systems & Complexity Affinity Group Meeting, Notes

o Co-Facilitator: Rob Ricigliano, Partnership for Sustainability and Peacebuilding, University

of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

o Co-Facilitator: Thom Feroah, Center for Global Health and Peacebuilding

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Storytelling Introduction:

Storytelling lies at the heart of peacebuilding. Only by understanding diverse narratives of conflict can

leaders and citizens begin to find common ground and construct new pathways toward a shared future.

Peacebuilding as a field also faces challenges of storytelling. Our work is often quiet, rather than loud. It

takes place over many years, often without bold climaxes or storylines. And relationships of trust often

preclude sharing key turning points or decisions. For all these reasons, AfP made storytelling a key focus

of the 2014 conference, as we seek as a field to bring stories of peace and human security to the fore.

Panel Summaries: The lunchtime discussion on Day 1, at USIP, with peacebuilding pioneers John Marks and Susan Collin

Marks was a story in and of itself. Recounting the history of the organization John founded – Search for

Common Ground – while weaving in words of wisdom, John and Susan shared a personal narrative of

peacebuilding throughout some of the world’s largest and deadliest conflicts. They emphasized what

makes for a successful NGO and shared their thoughts on how the peacebuilding community can better

position itself for success.

During the “Selling Peace” panel, top executives from USIP, the U.S Global Leadership Coalition, and

Leo Burnett, discussed how they talk about peace in their own communities, and urged the audience to

examine how it could sell peace to new audiences and new consumers. This panel placed a premium

on well-crafted rhetoric and creativity to help raise the profile of peacebuilding, and to encourage new

ways of thinking about peace in mainstream and policy audiences. Peter Loge, Vice President for

External Relations at USIP, focused on rhetoric, with a discussion on how to craft specific messages for

key target audiences; Dave Lowe, who joined us as a top advertising executive,, shared a video produced

for Coca Cola, portraying Indian and Pakistanis meeting virtually (and joyfully) through a Coca Cola

vending machine. His visual representation of peace served as a creative example of Peter Loge’s steps

for a well-crafted message. Ultimately the panelists urged the audience to consider ‘peace’ as a tangible

product. Liz Schrayer, founder of the highly influential “US Global Leadership Coalition,” discussed her

experiences with “selling peace” to a US policy community often highly skeptical of non-military

approaches to security.

Using a different lens, the “Telling the Stories of Peacebuilding” panel explored the possibilities for

creating meaningful impact through narrative. Three master storytellers illustrated the need for

peacebuilders to better tell the story of the field and its impact. Featuring the use of media and a

poetry slam by the President of the International Storytelling Center, the panel demonstrated the

sheer power of narrative in all of its forms. The panelists asked the audience to consider the ways in

which various forms of media could be harnessed in their own organizations to better amplify their

stories.

During their Flash Talks, Russ Rosenzweig, CEO of World Ventures Group, and Claudia Maffettone, of

SOLIYA, discussed their work in intercultural cooperation. Russ Rosenzweig and World Ventures Group

work to build strong profitable business ventures across conflict lines to bring parties together. Claudia

Maffettone and SOLIYA are working in cross-cultural exchange to develop lasting understanding and

relationships. Both organizations are helping build new narratives between adversaries and changing the

stories they tell of the future.

Conclusion:

Storytelling’s impact can be felt in a myriad of ways: from shifting opinion, to gaining support, to selling

a product. The panels illuminated for conference participants how they can harness the power of

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communicating the stories of the people they help, as well as shaping the narrative of their organizations

and the field as a whole.

Relevant Sessions:

Lunchtime Discussion, Notes

o John Marks, Founder, Search for Common Ground and Susan Collin Marks, Vice President

Selling Peace: How Actors from the Business, Media and Policy Communities Talk about

Peace, Notes

o David Loew, Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett USA

o Peter Loge, Vice President for External Relations, USIP, Remarks

o Liz Schrayer, Executive Director, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition

o Moderator: Julia Roig, President, Partners for Democratic Change

Five-Minute Flash Talks o Claudia Maffettone, Officer – Network Program, SOLIYA

o Russ Rosenzweig, Chief Executive Officer, World Ventures Group

Telling the Stories of Peacebuilding, Notes

o Michael Shipler, Regional Director, Asia, Search for Common Ground

o Jamil Simon, President, Spectrum Media, Presentation

o Kiran Sirah, Executive Director, International Storytelling Center, Video of Kiran Sirah’s

Poetry

o Moderator: John Filson, Senior Program Manager for Policy, AfP

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Funders and Peacebuilding

Introduction:

Occupying a niche role as a convener, AfP is unique in its ability to understand the concerns of its

members while fostering positive connections with key funders for the field. Throughout the 2014 Annual

Conference, AfP was able to bring together conference participants, AfP members, and foundation

executives for productive discussions about the complex donor-grantee relationship.

Panel Summaries:

AfP invited a panel of presidents from three leading foundations – El-Hibri Charitable Foundation,

Ploughshares Fund and Rockefeller Brothers Fund – to discuss how they develop strategy for

grantmaking in a complex security landscape. In a remarkably candid and lively conversation, the

panelists stressed that foundations no longer fund great ideas, but great ideas that work, and encouraged

grantees to report their failures in order to bolster our collective impact on building sustainable

peace.

A Flash Talk by Alexandra Toma, Executive Director of the Peace and Security Funders Group, also

elucidated key foundation priorities in the peace and security field.. She explained how funders are

focused on local peacebuilders and how prevention is a priority. She likewise reiterated the need for better

communication and stories and spoke about the next generation of wealth by integrating unlikely allies

such as conservatives into funding the stream.

Conclusion:

Over the past few years, the funder-implementer relationship has shifted significantly. No longer is the

donor relegated to just writing checks, but instead, donors are actively partnering with organizations,

striking a delicate balance between funding the field and driving the direction of the field. In order to

capitalize on this dynamic, organizations can and should look to collaborate for collective impact with

foundations to create, as Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione said, “not just great ideas, but great

ideas that work.”

Relevant Sessions:

Five-Minute Flash Talk

o Alexandra Toma, Executive Director, Peace and Security Funders Group

Scanning the Horizon: How Funders Plan Strategy and Manage Complexity in the Peace and

Security Area Notes

o Judy Barsalou, President, El-Hibri Charitable Foundation

o Joseph Cirincione, President, Ploughshares Fund

o Stephen Heintz, President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

o Moderator: Melanie Greenberg, President & CEO, AfP

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Technology and Peacebuilding

Introduction:

The peacebuilding community is just beginning to harness new technologies on a broad scale. From

social media, to aggregate data collection, to gaming, technology incorporates crucial tools that are

changing the way peacebuilders operate at all levels of their work.

Panel Summaries:

Keynote Speaker Asi Burak, Founder and President of Games for Change, spoke about the use of gaming

as a tool for peacebuilding. The gaming industry is the strongest media platform of this century, grossing

66 billion dollars per year. Asi challenged the audience to imagine the potential of using games to

instill critical peacebuilding skills in the minds of today’s youth, and how that could influence

future peace efforts.

The panel titled “The Tech-Data Frontier” brought together the technology and peacebuilding

communities to explore how peacebuilding organizations can harness technologies to aggregate and

disseminate information. Panelists discussed this in the context of three topics: election violence, early

response vs. early reaction, and social media. Broadly, panelists spoke about the challenges of data

collection on the ground and sharing verifiable information on the internet as well as the benefits of social

media in garnering support and the creation of algorithms for early warning conflict detection.

Conclusion:

Technology, whether early warning conflict prevention tools or social media, is instrumental before,

during, and after conflict. Conference participants learned about a plethora of technologies dedicated to

data collecting, information sharing, and perception changing. As a “new frontier” of peacebuilding,

technology has the power to radically shift how practitioners operate at both a large and small scale.

Relevant Sessions:

Keynote Address Games for Change: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, Notes,

Video

o Asi Burak, President, Games for Change

The Tech-Data Frontier, Notes

o Michael Best, Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

o Michelle Gregory, Director, Social Media and Data Sciences, Innovative Analytics &

Training

o Noel Dickover, Senior Program Officer, PeaceTech, USIP

o Rachel Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Sisi Ni Amani

o Moderator: Nancy Payne, Deputy Director of the Peace Tech Initiative, USIP

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Urban Violence and Cross-Border Criminal Activity

Introduction:

Urban violence and cross-border criminal activity now lead to more violent deaths per year than

politically-oriented violence, according to the 2011 World Development Report. The peacebuilding field

needs new tools and conceptual lenses to grapple with these emerging forms of violence. This panel

explored the challenges that urban violence and cross-border criminal activity pose for peacebuilding.

Panel Summaries:

During the “Urban Violence and Cross-Border Criminal Activity: New Challenges for Peacebuilding”

panel, each panelist discussed the importance of identifying the drivers of criminal violence—exclusion,

lack of respect and dignity, social inequality—in order to better understand why it occurs and how we can

stop its spread. Representatives from two separate US government agencies, a Guatemalan diplomat, and

an academic, spoke about the rise in urban violence and cross-border criminal activity, which are

emerging as key threats to peace and stability around the world. As the nature of conflict changes –

conflict driven by criminal entrepreneurship – so must the remedies.

Conclusion:

With the rapid growth of cities, especially in the Global South, and the enabling tools of web-based media

and communications, cross-border criminal activity and urban violence are shaping a new frontier of

conflict, and necessitating the use of a new peacebuilding toolkit. Governments, NGOs, and practitioners

must strive to better understand how these issues are creating scenarios rife for conflict, in order to

prevent them. The AfP Annual Conference provided a unique space for participants and panelists to

explore these emerging hot zones of conflict.

Relevant Sessions:

Urban Violence and Cross-Border Criminal Activity: New Challenges for Peacebuilding, Notes

o Ambassador José María Argueta, Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the

Organization of American States

o Robert Brenneman, Assistant Professor, St. Michaels College and Author, Homies and

Hermanos

o Todd Robinson, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law

Enforcement Affairs, US State Department

o Enrique Roig, Coordinator for Central America, Regional Security Initiative, USAID

o Moderator: Fiona Mangan, Program Officer, USIP

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Women and Peacebuilding

Introduction:

As highlighted in AfP’s third issue of Building Peace magazine, women play a crucial role in the

sustainability of peace processes. At the conference, participants were able to discuss women, peace and

security issues and better understand how gender issues must be woven throughout all aspects of

peacebuilding.

Panel Summaries:

On the last day of the conference, the Women and Peacebuilding Affinity group convened, facilitated by

Kimberly Weichel, former CEO of Peace X Peace. During the meeting, Kim underscored the importance

of gender sensitivity in policymaking, and how it is critical to engage more voices to build sustainable

peace. Kim then gave the floor to Singmila Shimrah, a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow at George Mason

University and researcher of the Naga Peace Process in Northeast India. Singmila gave a detailed

presentation on the background and history of the Naga people and the pivotal role of Naga women in the

Naga peace process. Even after a half century of struggle, Naga women are still struggling to take their

place as mediators, conveners, protectors and negotiators in formal and informal peace processes.

Following the talk, meeting participants shared relevant stories within their own work, and explored

options for the future of the Affinity Group.

Conclusion:

Issues of gender pervade all dynamics of peacebuilding, and inclusion of women in crucial processes is

paramount. As a convener of peacebuilding organizations, AfP was able to provide a space for

practitioners to come together and discuss how to unify around these issues.

Relevant Sessions:

Women and Peacebuilding Affinity Group Meeting, Notes

o Singmila Shimrah, a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow at George Mason University and Researcher of

the Naga Peace Process.

o Facilitator: Kimberly Weichel, CEO, Peace X Peace

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The Next Generation of Peacebuilders

Introduction:

As the peacebuilding field continues to grow, leaders of the field need to think about preparing the next

generation of peacebuilders to practice in our field, and building an infrastructure for the field that can

support the sizable wave of students graduating every year. AfP strives to provide resources for students

and recent graduates to help prepare them to enter the field after graduation. During the Annual

Conference, AfP provided a free workshop specifically geared towards students, to learn directly from

peacebuilding professionals, ask pressing questions, and strategize on improving their job prospects.

Panel Summaries:

Representatives from academia, the nonprofit sector, and the private sector helped navigate the

peacebuilding profession for a packed room of young professionals and students. They stressed that the

field is vast, and many young people may not land directly within the peacebuilding profession itself;

rather, the panel illustrated how students might use their conflict resolution skills in any number of related

contexts. Thus young professionals should not be focusing on “how to get in the game, but how to end

the game.” After the panel and Q&A, attendees were encouraged to share their resumes for editing and

strategizing.

From a professional lens, AfP’s Education and Training Affinity Group (made up of academic

professionals in the peacebuilding field) met to discuss many of the difficult questions around preparing

students for a career in peacebuilding, including the ethical dilemma around the cost of graduate school.

Some participants then moved the discussion on to what type of students are attractive to employers. As

the field is becoming diverse and interdisciplinary, the group recognized that those students who have a

special focus or those coming from different sectors are most attractive to employers. The conversation

then focused on how to better train students, making sure they are exposed to a variety of networks and

have the opportunities to connect with practitioners (either through internships, mentoring, or networks).

There was a suggestion that the Affinity Group facilitate conversations around possible collaborations,

professional development, and relevant information to share with students about employment trends.

Conclusion: The future of the peacebuilding field depends on the quality of the young professionals entering the field

during a time of expansion and change. As a leader in the field, AfP is poised to continue these types of

gatherings for students and recent graduates to better prepare them for the professional workforce as well

as for current professionals to discuss how to pave a smoother path to success.

Relevant Sessions:

Preparing the Next Generation of Peacebuilders Notes

o Cynthia Brady, Senior Conflict Advisor, Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation,

USAID

o Anne Salinas, Program Director, Peacebuilding and Conflict Mitigation, FHI 360

o Alissa Wilson, Policy Associate, American Friends Service Committee

o Craig Zelizer, Associate Director, MA in Conflict Resolution, Georgetown University, Craig

Zelizer’s Presentation

o Moderator: John Charles, Career Advisor , American University Career Center

Education & Training Affinity Group Meeting, Notes

o Co-Facilitator: Ron Fisher, Peace and Conflict Resolution Program, American University

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o Co-Facilitator: Necla Tschirgi, Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San

Diego

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Conclusion

The 2014 Annual Conference displayed AfP’s commitment to innovation, collaboration and amplifying

the voice of peacebuilders for maximum impact. Coming from a diverse set of fields and professions,

panelists challenged and encouraged conference participants to think critically about the field’s most

pressing concerns and newest “frontiers”. At the end of the conference, AfP members were asked to

conduct a SWOT analysis of the peacebuilding field: after all that they heard throughout the conference,

where are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for peacebuilders? Additionally, AfP staff

members led the members’ business meeting, allowing for a transparent discussion about AfP, its

programs, and new directions for the community. Ultimately, the 2014 Annual Conference created a

dynamic atmosphere for AfP members and conference participants to stretch the possibilities of the field

and explore the most innovative ways to create positive peace and solve some of the most complicated

issues of our time.

Relevant Sessions:

Framing the Frontiers of Peacebuilding: Challenges for the Field and How We Approach

Them-

o Welcome and Introductions

o SWOT Analysis Breakout Sessions- Strengths Notes, Weaknesses Notes, Opportunities

Notes, Threats Notes, Plenary Notes

Members’ Business Meeting, Notes, Presentation