Pioneering Global Learning Event Brings 80 Peace Leaders to Sierra Leone
to Collaborate in “Building Peace from the Inside Out”
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – More than 80 people from around the world are gathering in the capital next week for “Constellating Peace from the Inside Out,” a week-long immersion learning event exploring the lessons of an innovative partnership for peacebuilding and development. The event is being hosted by the Government ….Keep reading this post >
The Government of Sierra Leone is pioneering a national policy framework that will put its people and communities in the center and at the helm of the country’s planning and development. (For more on the process of our partnership with them in its development, you can check out these posts.)
You can read and download the complete Draft Framework here.
Here is a brief overview and list of highlights of the Framework ….Keep reading this post >
How can government and funders support community healing and people-led planning and development? That was our focus at planning meetings at Ulster University in Belfast in mid-November. Senior government leaders from Sierra Leone gathered to focus on the planning and rollout of the flagship Wan Fambul National Framework for Local Governance and Rural Development, along with partner organizations (I was there representing Catalyst for Peace and John Caulker from our ….Keep reading this post >
In mid-January, Catalyst for Peace (CFP) co-hosted a retreat with Kenya-based Green String Network (GSN) to Celebrate and Nurture Women’s Leadership in Peacebuilding.
Women came – and some men (invited for selected sessions) from many corners of Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, the United States and Zimbabwe. Some led organizations, addressed policy, while some gathered friends, family and fellow community members to heal their trauma and make their communities better. Some ….Keep reading this post >
Our thoughts are with Sierra Leoneans as they hold their national elections and await the outcome. You can read below the full statement to press that we issued yesterday together with our Sierra Leonean partner Fambul Tok, calling for peaceful elections and cohesive work to fulfill the nation’s promise after the elections. You can also listen here to the jingle we produced that is now airing across the Sierra Leone, ….Keep reading this post >
Thank you for your leadership.
These words, spoken by a Kenyan woman peacebuilder, both gladdened and surprised me – gladdened because it’s always nice to have someone affirm a positive contribution they feel I’ve made; surprised because my focus had been on serving, not leading.
She spoke at the conclusion of a five-day retreat whose theme was Celebrating and Nurturing Women as Peacebuilders. Co-convened by Catalyst for Peace and Green String Network, ….Keep reading this post >
Catalyst for Peace’s work with Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone has shifted from its initial focus on post-war community reconciliation. As we have written about elsewhere, building on the lessons of that work, we are focused now on creating spaces for communities to lead in their own development, supported by an inclusive governance infrastructure. Simply stated, the work has moved from peacebuilding to development (and inclusive governance) – while still ….Keep reading this post >
In the last week of March, Catalyst for Peace and our partner Fambul Tok moved further towards partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in Sierra Leone to help grow inclusive governance throughout Sierra Leone. Together with Ulster University, CFP, FT and the Ministry convened a gathering in N. Ireland to imagine and think through how to design and operationalize a national policy that would support a truly ….Keep reading this post >
At the end of February, my colleague Charles and I went to Kenya to meet with friends and colleagues who are part of an organization called Green String Network. We wanted to explore how we could, together, facilitate growing women’s leadership in peacebuilding.
Our colleagues have long experience working in Peacebuilding in Kenya and in the region more broadly. Due to the respect they have from their previous work and relationships, ….Keep reading this post >
Amy and I left Angi’s early today for a women’s circle in Kibera/Kibra (the name depends on your tribe), the largest “informal settlement” (referred to by many of the people who live there by the less elegant term – slum) in Nairobi, stopping along the way to pick up Nyambura, who has done a great deal of work in Kibra.
Nairobi is in the midst of what seems to be an ….Keep reading this post >
