Annual review

Highlights of 2010-11

2010-11 was a year of expanding our impact and spreading our message:

  • We were rated top out of 25 UK and US aid agencies – including Save the Children and Christian Aid – in the Keystone Accountability Survey. This survey was the first to assess international agencies’ performance according to the views of over 1,000 of their local partners. Its findings offer independent endorsement for our core concept, that development programmes should be locally led wherever possible.
  • Our online showcase for local peacebuilding, Insight on Conflict, increased its user traffic by 98% to 14,450 visits per month. This followed its expansion to cover 20 conflict zones, and the launch of a monthly newsletter, a weekly Sudan briefing, and a twice-weekly blog by respected practitioners.
  • Our work was increasingly reported in the media, including an entire Channel 4 documentary, three entire programmes on BBC World Service, and two appearances on Radio 4 (PM and You And Yours), amongst other coverage.
  • Our concept paper Ripples Into Waves was presented to policy-makers in the UN and UK government, and circulated by the UN to its 60 Peace and Development Advisers worldwide. It is now a source document on the UK government’s Stabilisation Unit website.
  • We launched affiliate organisations in Germany and the USA, in order to raise funds and to spread our influence to those governments, the UN and the EU. The USA affiliate launched with a gala fundraising evening hosted by our patron, the Broadway star Mark Rylance, who performed a specially commissioned play about Congolese peacebuilder Henri Ladyi.

None of this would be possible without those who are at the centre of everything we do – the peacebuilders. We are all too conscious of the risks they take and the extraordinary perseverance they possess. Time and again we have been taken aback by their insights into their own conflicts, which are way ahead of our own.

Nor would our work be possible without donations from our supporters, which allow us to remain independent, flexible and effective.

For more information on the year’s activities, please view our detailed annual accounts and review (pdf).