Leading the peacebuilding field to embrace a more adaptive and rigorous evaluative culture to prove impact and understand what works
We use our technical capacity in Learning & Evidence to support our fieldbuilding efforts for:
Creating standards of practice to align peacebuilding around common purpose
Developing an evidence base to ensure better policies and practices
Advocating for game-changing policies, laws, and funding to prevent and reduce violent conflict
Accelerating collective action through collaboration and exchange
Creating Standards of Practice
AfP is raising the bar for peacebuilding practice by setting minimal standards for peacebuilding DM&E across the field.
We build on existing efforts to validate these standards and work towards adopting and integrating them across the field through our training and skills-building opportunities.
Eirene Peacebuilding Database®
Eirene is a comprehensive collection of 3,381 indicators from 2,008 publicly available peacebuilding resources.
Guiding Standards for Peacebuilding Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation
Peacebuilding is critical to reducing and preventing violent conflict, violence, and fragility and building long-term sustainable peace. Even though the field is over two decades old, it still does not have an agreed-upon set of standards for programmatic research, design, and implementation. This document details seven standards that every peacebuilding program must include to contribute to robust evidence and learning.
Developing an Evidence Base
AfP works to develop a peacebuilding evidence base to ensure better policies and practices for our field. We create and curate evidence around peacebuilding practices to support field-wide achievement of shared outcomes through our pioneering research efforts. Our research involves both AfP-led, joint, and supported efforts, focused on identifying and addressing current peacebuilding research gaps.
Pioneering Research
AfP develops a robust body of evidence through our pioneering research efforts. We believe that if we can identify where peacebuilding programming has directly correlated to peacebuilding outcomes, then we will be better able to ground program DM&E and policy in evidence,
Research Talks with L&E blog
AfP’s Research Talks with L&E summarizes new research that our technical experts are reading. Key findings are synthesized into short blog posts and discuss key implications for the field - from connecting new research to programming, practice, or other key endeavors.
Advocating for game-changing policies, laws, & funding
Through our strong policy network, extensive experience, and pioneering research, we work to shift peacebuilding norms, advocate for evidence-informed policy, and make peacebuilding the proven and preferred approach to preventing conflict, reducing violence, and creating more resilient societies everywhere.
accelerating collective action
AfP believes that knowledge sharing across the field is crucial to transform peacebuilding. Peacebuilders often still work in isolation from one another, hampering the field's ability to collaborate and learn from each other. Our joint-learning initiatives are grounded in the belief that to change a culture, you need to provide safe spaces to share both the successes and failures, promote learning of what is and is not working, and identify gaps in knowledge, evidence, and practice.
Peer learning community for evaluation of interreligious dialogue initiatives (IRD)
AfP works to advance the field of IRD by leading and facilitating a learning community for organizations currently undergoing evaluations of their IRD programming.
L&E at AfP’s Annual PeaceCon
Each year AfP hosts researchers, MEL experts, academics, faith actors, and FBOs at PeaceCon to provide a platform for shared learning, improve peacebuilding DM&E, and advocate for greater support for MEL and inter-religious action (IRA). We develop dedicated tracts for Evidence, IRA, and regional issues to reserve space for these critical conversations.
Peacebuilding M&E Solutions Forum
The Peacebuilding M&E Solutions Forum is a unique learning opportunity focused on highlighting best practices and lessons from the field in peacebuilding M&E.
Experts
Emily Sample
Director of Research, Evidence, & Learning
