Shifting Power in Peace.
New Dynamics and Agendas – Reshaping Cooperation for Sustainable Peace and Development
The Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt) hosted the sixth edition of the FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum on 5 and 6 June 2024 in Berlin, Germany.
More than 150 participants from 37 countries discussed three overarching topics: Peace & Security, Peace & Climate, and Feminist Peacebuilding.
Are we ready for a Just Peace?
Promoting justice and equity is key to sustainable development and peace – but are we ready for it? Structural injustices and inequalities are still at the root of conflicts today. These asymmetries are even exacerbated, as the most vulnerable populations are the ones most affected by violent conflict and interlinked global crises. At the same time, cooperation for peacebuilding faces a shifting world order in which close to half of all conflicts in 2021 were internationalised. The FriEnt PBF invited members of the global peacebuilding community and its stakeholders to reflect on how this power shift also affects peacebuilding. The conference addressed these "new dynamics and agendas" by looking beyond established paradigms to "reshape cooperation for sustainable peace and development". The focus of the conference lay on the following three policy areas:
Reshaping Alliances for Peace and Security
What is the role for Europe?
Promoting Peace through Climate Justice
How can environmental peacebuilding address injustices and conflicts to promote a just transition?
Addressing Dilemmas in Power Shifts
How do peacebuilding practitioners and feminist actors navigate resistance in transforming power structures?
Side events on related topics took place around the conference as well.
About the FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum
The FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum 2024 welcomed more than 150 local, national, and global state and civil society actors as well as policymakers. Amongst them were national and international government institutions, parliamentarians, civil society organisations as well as international partner networks of the FriEnt member organisations. Together, we wanted to reaffirm the peacebuilding communities' claim to influence policy debates and strengthen peacebuilding narratives. The conference provided networking opportunities in an inclusive environment that brought together peacebuilders from state actors and civil society from different parts of the world.
The Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt) is an association of governmental organisations, church development agencies, civil society networks, and political foundations.
