At WPDI, Peacebuilding is one of the four foundational pillars of our mission, embodying our commitment to fostering resilience and concord through grassroots initiatives and community involvement. We recognize that sustainable peace begins at the local level, where individuals and communities are directly engaged in addressing and resolving conflicts. Our peacebuilding approach focuses on empowering local actors, including leaders, students, and teachers, to become active participants in creating a culture of peace.’
We approach peacebuilding by integrating conflict mediation, advocacy for peace values, and conflict resolution training into our programs on the ground. By working closely with community members, we help to bridge divides and build mutual understanding. Our goal is to transform conflict into opportunities for dialogue and cooperation, ensuring that communities are equipped to handle disputes and motivated to work together toward lasting peace.
Our peacebuilding initiatives are designed to create a solid foundation for lasting change through community engagement and education:
- Community Engagement: Bringing the community together is often the first step in a reconciliation process or it can be an opportunity to strengthen existing peace by rooting it deeper in the minds and hearts of the people. Over the years, we have successfully organized events that convened around 94,000 participants for community dialogue, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution training. These gatherings are instrumental in building stronger relationships and promoting collective efforts toward conflict resolution and harmony.
- Youth Empowerment: Our network of 2,200 Youth Peacemakers is one of our key vectors for grassroots action. They are young women and men that we have taken through a comprehensive training of trainers in conflict resolution, entrepreneurship and ICT for a six to twelve-month period. This ensures that they have the necessary confidence and command to undertake community-based programs on our behalf as transformative insiders.
- Educational Impact: Establishing a culture of peace in places where it has been chronically thwarted calls for long term commitment, making it key to sow the seeds for positive attitudes at the earliest possible age. Hence our focus on Peace Education, Conflict Resolution Education as key dimensions of global citizenship education as heralded among the SDG targets on Education. Conflict Resolution Education is a hallmark of the offering at all our Community Learning Centers. Our program for conflict resolution in schools, which not only prepares budding citizens for their future responsibilities but also helps to make their schools more enabling environments for learning in general. Our programs have reached over 37,500 students and teachers across 330 schools. Through comprehensive training in conflict resolution and related skills, we are enhancing individuals’ ability to manage conflicts constructively and fostering a positive, peaceful school environment.
- Advocacy Campaigns: disseminating values, attitudes and behaviors of peace and nonviolence into local settings calls for constant and targeted efforts towards the communities. To this effect, we have made it a priority to organize events – ranging from workshops and film projections to festivals – intended to raise awareness of participants on the importance of peace and values related to human rights and the Sustainable Development. Our network of 16 Community Learning Centers (CLCs) is, in this light, a unique vector of change for directly the communities on themes that concern them in language they can own.
The real measure of our success is in the tangible benefits our programs bring to individuals and communities. In 2023, we surveyed 1,758 former Peace Education and Conflict Resolution trainees across South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, and Mexico. Remarkably, 1,731 of our program participants reported applying the skills they acquired in their daily or professional lives. This highlights the enduring and practical impact of our training programs, affirming our commitment to fostering sustainable peace and empowering communities through actionable skills and knowledge.
