On the 17th and 18th of April, the world of peacemaking descended upon Berlin to attend the Berghof Foundation’s new conference: The Berlin Moot. Under the theme of ‘Reshaping Peace’, more than 300 experts from around the world came together to take stock on the current state of peacemaking and discuss concrete suggestions for the future.
Among those experts were three representatives from ISDC.
Evidence in Peace
ISDC Director Tilman Brück pitched how evidence can support peace to the conference audience. His argument: We can (and should) use collect and use rigorous evidence to understand what works in peace programming – and what doesn’t. ISDC does this through a variety of projects, maybe most notably: our flagship PeaceFIELD project.
The Peace Bargain
ISDC also hosted an expert panel at the conference, featuring Hiba Qasas (Principles For Peace), Theresa Lünemann (German Federal Foreign Office), Sofia Warttmann (The Stabilisation Platform), Mirko Manzoni (Swiss Ambassador to South Africa) and Neil Ferguson (ISDC) – moderated by Tatiana Orozco García (ISDC).
Here, we discussed the role of finance in peace agreement negotiation and implementation. The discussion built on two ISDC reports on these topics, conducted in cooperation with swisspeace and financed by GFFO and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation: The Cost of Talking Peace and The Peace Bargain.
The panel agreed that, in financing and for peace negotiations as a whole, peace processes should not be seen as linear – they are complex and changing. Nevertheless, funding structures (and adaptability around funding) are vital tools to support success. Beyond the traditional donors of peace processes, it is important that the private sector sees that there is value in providing financing.
We are grateful to the being able to contribute to The Berlin Moot and look forward to continuing our important work with our partners on building positive and sustainable peace.
