The Voices of Sustaining Peace: Innovating capacity building for peace in the face of COVID 19

The global campaign “UN75 – Shaping Our Future Together”, intended to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, was launched in January 2020 and aimed to dedicate the entire year to the amplification of the vast diversity of grassroots voices from the communities that the United Nations is mandated to serve. Following the call of the Secretary-General, various actors and institutions in the UN family have been designing and implementing a multitude of tools meant to listen to people across the world and learn about their experience of overcoming global challenges, including some of the most acute of them – persistent violent conflicts and instability.

The long-planned campaign came shortly ahead of the unplanned global health crisis. While posing an unprecedented challenge to the implementation of the sustaining peace agenda, the pandemic has at the same time had a remarkable positive effect on spurring innovation all across the related thematic areas, both in terms of greater digitalisation and new approaches to project implementation. It has also reiterated the critical value of strengthened partnerships with local actors.

In response to this double call from the community of nations and the COVID-19 pandemic, UNITAR Division for Peace will contribute to the ongoing global conversation by:

• communicating about the grassroots sustaining peace innovations with the original local voices;
• using these personal stories as an inspiration for a global cooperative action at all levels;
• showcasing innovations in various related thematic areas and using them as a starting point for further innovative developments to accommodate the needs under the new normal;
• bringing together high-level and local peace actors to raise the awareness of and lead the narrative in innovation for sustaining peace.

This way, the Division for Peace aims to silence the guns while elevating the voices of grassroots heroes serving on the frontlines of the battle against the pandemic.

PART 1: 21 SEPTEMBER – THE VOICES OF SUSTAINING PEACE: SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

On our social media channels, we will feature some real personal stories of innovative approaches to promoting peace during the pandemic. Lookup for updates every Tuesday and Thursday!

Some of the themes will include:

• Peacebuilding and Mediation
• Justice
• Humanitarian Action
• Youth, Peace and Security
• Women, Peace and Security

Meet some of the (s)heroes on the 20th of January 2021 virtually! Want to ask your questions in advance? Write us at [email protected] and we will do our best to forward your question to our panelists.

PART 2: 20 JANUARY 2021 – SUSTAINING PEACE AND RAPID INNOVATION IN THE FACE OF COVID-19: MEET THE (S)HEROES – UNITAR DIVISION FOR PEACE ADVISORY BOARD SIDE EVENT

On the occasion of the 12th Session of the UNITAR Division for Peace Advisory Board Meeting, you are cordially invited to attend a virtual conference on 20 January 2021, 2 pm - 4 pm CEST, which will bring together the protagonists of the inspiring stories below and high-level experts in peace and security.

The discussion will focus on:

• examples of real challenges that each of the story protagonists faced in their peacebuilding/ humanitarian/ development work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• innovative tools and approaches used to deal with these challenges and continue capacity building for peace;
• possible ways to address existing capacity gaps and successfully adjust to the “new normal” and build back better through stronger partnerships and multi-sectoral collaboration.

Moderator: Mr. Alan Doss, Special Advisor and Former President of the Kofi Annan Foundation, Former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNITAR Division for Peace Advisory Board Member

Keynote speaker: Mr. Fabrizio Hochschild-Drummond, UN Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Commemoration of the United Nations 75th Anniversary

Story protagonists:

• Ms. Orsolya Bader, Digital Networks & Society Department, Telecommunication Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union; Participant in the Master’s programme in Humanitarian Action and Peacebuilding by UNITAR/ Oxford Brookes University (OBU)
• Mr. Hisham Al-Omeisy, Conflict analyst, Yemen; Alumni of the Master’s programme in Conflict, Peace and Security by UNITAR/ Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
• Ms. Cristina and Ms. Leidy Ríos, Heads of Corporación Génesis, an NGO dedicated to peacebuilding in Colombia
• Mr. Ali Chahine, Peacebuilding consultant and facilitator in MENA region, UNITAR Mediation and Conflict Analysis Trainer
• Mr. Rohullah Azizi, Curriculum Adviser at Afghanistan Legal Education Project (ALEP), Appeals Representative, Fulbright Scholar

The conference will involve a Q&A session and will be live streamed on the official UNITAR YouTube page. Attendance is open to everyone interested.

Click to register now!

The event will be held in English with Spanish interpretation. 

Others Details

Registered attendees will have a chance to participate in the online Q&A session, and are also welcome to send their questions in advance to [email protected].