Global Issues

Peace

What creates sustainable peace?

The Situation

War and armed conflict affect the lives of some two billion people worldwide and impede the positive development of entire countries and regions. Even societies that no longer face violent conflicts often have to deal with their aftermath for decades to come. In around 60 percent of all civil wars, violence escalates again within an average of just seven years after a peace agreement.

The Goal

We support societies affected by violent conflicts in their transformation toward sustainable peace. Local stakeholders who are highly familiar with the conflict and the region design their peace processes. Peace is more than just the absence of violence: It also involves the strengthening of structures and institutions that characterize peaceful societies.

Our Strategy

Transforming conflict into sustainable peace requires time and approaches on all levels of society. Therefore, we provide medium- to long-term support in selected regions to people and organizations directly affected by conflict. Together with regional stakeholders, we set up initiatives that shape inclusive peace processes and implement projects locally. The ongoing development and implementation of local peace approaches require collective efforts. Hence, we promote exchange among academics and practitioners globally while contributing findings of our work to peacebuilding debates and activities. Furthermore, we take the relevance of climate change, migration, and inequality into consideration.

Insights

Opinion

Only Sustainable Solutions to Environmental Crises Can Take Away Their Power to Drive Conflict

How Can We Achieve Sustainable Peace?

To story

#recorded

Forging New Paths for Peace and Hope

How can we create sustainable peace and give people in crisis areas new hope? The Principles for Peace...

Publication

Chain of Influence Framework for Systems Change: Shifting Power to Local Actors

Interview

The Difficult Security Situation in the Sahel Region

Between two appointments at the Munich Security Conference 2022, Hanna Tetteh...

“Local Peacebuilders are the Core of Building Sustainable Peace”

To story

Guest contribution

“The Sahel Is also a European Challenge”

At this year's Munich Security Conference, the Robert Bosch Stiftung focused on the stabilization and...

Opinion

Enough Is Enough: It’s Time to Take Local Actors Seriously!

A call for a new approach to international peacebuilding.

Publication

A Global System in Flux

Interview

New Paths to Sustainable Peace

War and armed conflict affect the lives of some 2 billion people worldwide. A new initiative that includes Bert...

Publication

Foundation News in Bosch Zünder 1/2021

The Path to Lasting Peace

Why have previous peace approaches generally met with such little success? And which paths can lead to lasting...

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Discover our work

Peace

Peace Direct

How can power and resources be shifted to local actors? We support the peacebuilding organization Peace Direct, which is dedicated to transforming the international peacebuilding system.

Peace

Re-Imagine the INGO (RINGO)

How can international non-governmental organizations be reshaped and contribute to a changed role for global civil society?

Peace

Conducive Space for Peace

We support the non-governmental organization Conducive Space for Peace to initiate changes in international peacebuilding.

Peace

Principles For Peace

A global participatory initiative to develop a new set of principles, standards and norms to fundamentally reshape how peace processes are structured.

Peace

Support Program Conflict, Climate Change and Environment in the Middle East

Peace

Developing Local Peacebuilding Capacity in Ninewa, Iraq

Peace

Find it, Define it, Time it – Civil Action for Climate

Our focus

We contribute to sustainable peacebuilding by supporting local approaches in selected regions and within the global peacebuilding system.

Our Activities in the Sahel

Our work focuses on the border region between Burkina Faso and the neighboring coastal states of Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. There is an urgent need for preventive peace approaches in these coastal states which, while little affected by violent conflict to date, are increasingly under threat. The locally-led peace initiative is a long-term project geared toward meeting specific needs, the details of which we work alongside local peace actors to define. By cooperating with these actors and supporting their projects, we work to prevent the further spread of violence in the region.

Our Activities in the Western Balkans

The aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the persistent instrumentalization of ethno-nationalist discourses continue to shape the region to this day. The border regions between the countries of the Western Balkans as well as those with neighboring EU member states hold particular potential for peacebuilding activities: These regions are familiar with pragmatic, cross-border cooperation, something which locally-led approaches can build upon. The locally-led peace initiative is a long-term project geared toward meeting specific needs, the details of which we work alongside local peace actors to define. Our support contributes to positive and sustainable peace in the region.

Our Activities in the Middle East

Home to around a quarter of a billion people, the Middle East has long been the scene of numerous conflicts with significant regional and international implications. Focusing on locally-led peacebuilding activities, we support selected projects and partners in the region with an emphasis on the nexus between conflict, climate, and the environment as well as a regional focus on the conflicts in Iraq and Yemen.

Promoting innovation in international peacebuilding

We support transformative projects and actors that push the global peacebuilding system toward better addressing the needs of local peacebuilding actors. By working with initiatives and organizations that build on existing systems or fundamentally rethink forms of peace cooperation, we strive to empower local actors to play a leading role in the field of peacebuilding.