PEACE DIRECT VALUES

Our values and strategy

Peace Direct was set up in 2003, and won Best New Charity in 2005. We fund, promote and learn from local peacebuilders in conflict areas. Our key values are:

• Trust local peacebuilders to know what is needed, funding the achievement of their vision rather than a donor-devised programme
• Bring learning from peacebuilders in areas of hot conflict to bear on conflict in the UK
• Assess rigorously the impact of the work we fund, and our own progress towards our long term goals
• Mirror the qualities of the peacebuilders we most admire – responsive, adaptable, quick to act, entrepreneurial and reflective

Who do we mean when we talk about local peacebuilders?

We mean Somalis in Somalia, Nepalis in Nepal – the people who really understand the background, and have the greatest stake in a lasting peace. They may be community leaders, politicians, businesspeople – what matters is, the conflict is in their country.

Why is local peacebuilding so important?

The costs of conflict are enormous. Local people have a unique ability to address conflict. Their courage and integrity, the sacrifices they make, give them the credibility to bring people together and create change.

Are there really local peacebuilders in every conflict area?

Our Insight on Conflict project maps local peacebuilding projects, not just the ones we support, in selected conflict areas. We’ve never failed to find them!

How does Peace Direct support local peacebuilding?

We develop long term relationships with selected peacebuilders, raising funds for initiatives they design, publicising their work, and giving them moral support.

How does Peace Direct assess the impact of local peacebuilding?

Organisations review their work annually, using a local ‘critical friend’ to provide objectivity. Our frame of reference is Reflecting on Peace Practice, which sets out what makes for effective peacebuilding. We also publish an Impact Statement for Peace Direct.

What is Peace Direct’s long term goal?

Our long term goal is for local peacebuilding to be at the centre of all strategies to manage conflict. This might seem obvious, but it’s far from the case right now.

How are we going to achieve this?

For this to happen, our theory of change tells us that we need to make, and measure, progress in four areas:

Fund local peacebuilding and demonstrate its effectiveness in saving lives, and rebuilding trust

We aim to raise funds so that the people we support can pursue their strategies, not ours, while making it a requirement that the results are evaluated in a form that makes it possible to assess impact.

Make it easy for people with power and resources to find out about local peacebuilding

Insight on Conflict is a web showcase providing detailed profiles of local peacebuilding initiatives, currently in 11 conflict areas. It is intended to enable international organizations to make use of local capacity for peacebuilding, media to reflect the views of those working for peace, and peacebuilders to learn from each other. Two thirds of the organizations we feature have no other web presence.

Get the public on board

Peace Direct has always been conceived as a peace charity with a positive message about the impact of local peacebuilders, and with inspiring stories to tell of their courage and commitment. If we can get local peacebuilding into the public consciousness as Amnesty did with human rights, this will also help to influence those with power and resources.

Create structures that link local peacebuilders into larger groupings, more fundable by donors

We believe that individual peacebuilding groups can achieve a huge amount – the £8,000 a year that we send to the CRC creates a fragile oasis of peace in Ituri district and North Kivu province in Eastern DRC covering approximately 500,000. But a different kind of impact can be achieved when groups work together to cover a larger area, or a whole country. Many donors can only fund projects at this scale.#

Our charitable objects

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Our brochure

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