Day 1: September 10, 2024

Speakers:

• Ambassador George E. Moose, Acting President, USIP 

• Alan Fitts, Alan Fitts, AfP Board Chair; Vice President, Strategy and Operations and Chief of Staff, Corporate Affairs and Communications, American Express 

• Liz Hume, Executive Director, AfP

Building Bridges to Peace in Northern Ireland: From the Good Friday Agreement and Beyond

Moderator:

• Ambassador Miguel Diaz, AfP Board Member; John Courtney Murray University Chair Public Service at Loyola University Chicago; former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See

Keynote Speaker:

• Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland

Advancing and Building the Peacebuilding Field: Status Quo No More
As global leaders prepare to gather for the United Nations General Assembly and the Summit of the Future, the world continues to experience record-breaking levels of fragility and violent conflict. How can the peacebuilding community urgently mobilize the public, policymakers, private, bilateral, and multilateral donors, the private sector, and others to engage meaningfully as conflict prevention champions? This session will explore how the peacebuilding community can make the case and take steps to ensure decisionmakers prioritize conflict prevention and peacebuilding to begin to reverse these rising violent conflict trends.

Moderator:

• Liz Hume, Executive Director, AfP

Panelists:

• Ambassador George E. Moose, Acting President, USIP

• Shamil Idriss, CEO, Search for Common Ground

• Peter van Sluijs, Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention, Expert; Coordinator, Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding

Countering Foreign Malign Influence to Strengthen Peaceful International Development
Defending a stable and peaceful rules-based international order requires identification and challenging of foreign state actors who use malign influence and cognitive conflict techniques to sabotage peaceful international relations and the rule of law. A core goal of countering foreign malign influence is to challenge harmful narratives and other practices, such as predatory foreign lending in developing countries. The assessment, identification, quantification, and confrontation of foreign malign influence operations has become a critical element of ensuring international development can be effective. This session will address how peacebuilding and international development, in tandem with public engagement and education, can effectively address the implications of global strategic competition on international peace and order.

Moderator:

• Allison Poyac-Clarkin, Senior Vice President of Programs, Management Systems International

Speakers:

• Matthew J. Kupchik, PhD, Team Lead - Marine Natural Resources Advisor, USAID

• Sorin Adam Matei, PhD, Associate Dean of Research at the College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University

• Cara Carter, Founding Director, ORB International

• Justin Richmond, Founder & Executive Director, IMPL. PROJECT

  
  

What is the Future of Measuring Peace? Integrating Lessons Learned from Scholarship and Practice
Actors in the international peacebuilding field often grapple with the challenge of measuring broader social change across programs so that the learnings speak beyond project outputs. When using conventional projectized research and evaluation approaches, peacebuilding practitioners struggle to fully capture local perspectives and adapt their programs to the nuanced realities on the ground. They often further wrestle with assessing the states of peace and conflict in which people exist and the impacts of interventions on these people and systems. As a result of these challenges, there is a growing presence of innovative frameworks such as Everyday Peace Indicators (EPI), EPI’s adaptation the Grounded Accountability Model (GAM), and Lindsay, Byrne, and De Figuerido’s grassroots facilitated Peace Poles. These methods seek to offer a dynamic array of quantifiable metrics and capture peace outcomes that circumvent some of these challenges by using community-informed processes to measure success. This session will explore how these approaches can be used in different settings, their challenges and limitations, and opportunities to connect big peace goals with local, everyday experiences to promote positive peace.

Speakers:

• Leslie Wingender, Senior Director, Peacebuilding, Humanity United

• Aisalkyn Botoeva, Research, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist, Search for Common Ground

• Leslie MacColman, PhD, Research Coordinator, Everyday Peace Indicators

• Preston Lindsay, PhD, University of Manitoba

• Madeleine Avignon, Country Director, Communities Organizing for Haitian Engagement and Development, (COFED)

• Pamina Firchow, Founding Executive Director, Everyday Peace Indicators

Strengthening the Humanitarian-Development-Peace-Private Sector Nexus to Achieve SDG16+
More than halfway through the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda, the world is experiencing more conflict than at any time since World War II and lagging behind efforts to implement SDG16—the key SDG to achieve all others—focused on creating a more peaceful, inclusive, and just world. Compounding matters, official development assistance and investment in peacebuilding and conflict prevention are declining. Given the onslaught of conflicts and crises, the humanitarian, development, peacebuilding, and private sectors must break down the silos that exist between them to support more effective interventions. This session will explore the policy, programmatic, and financial barriers undermining coherent and complementary efforts to address the world’s most pressing problems, as well as opportunities to mobilize diverse stakeholders, support integrated, locally-led approaches to prevent and address conflict, and accelerate realization of SDG16 and the Sustainable Development Agenda in the years ahead. With an eye to the upcoming Summit of the Future, it will also give special attention to the strategies for taking forward the actions and commitments of governments and the UN system found in the Summit’s chief outcome document, the Pact for the Future.

Speakers:

• Genevieve Maricle, Senior Humanitarian-Development-Peace Advisor, Office of Policy, USAID

• Richard Ponzio, PhD, Senior Fellow and Director, Global Governance, Justice, and Security Program, Stimson Center

• Jonathan Papoulidis, Vice President, External Engagement, Food for the Hungry

• John Romano, Director, The Transparency, Accountability, and Participation (TAP) Network

• Annika Silva-Leander, Head of North America and Permanent Observer to the United Nations, International IDEA

  
  

Emerging Powers in Mediation: The New Landscape of International Conflict Resolution
In an era of changing global and regional power dynamics, the landscape of conflict is evolving, and so too is the nature of international conflict mediation. There is a shift from Western-dominated international mediation and peace support to a more diverse set of states that are increasingly engaging in conflict mediation. By the end of this decade, far more high-level mediation roles will be taken on by governments and institutions from outside of Europe and North America. For years, a handful of emerging powers in mediation, including South Africa, Türkiye, and several Gulf countries have been successfully positioning themselves as central peacemakers in global and regional conflicts, and many of them are now working to scale-up and institutionalize this capability. Given this steady shift in the global mediation ecosystem, this session will explore the mediation priorities, practices, and styles advanced by these actors, and implications for the future of peacemaking.

Moderator:

• Sasha Pippenger, Acting Director, Inclusive Peace Processes and Reconciliation, United States Institute of Peace

Speakers:

• Cecily Brewer, Senior Expert, United States Institute of Peace

• Nimet Beriker Ph.D., Lecturer, Columbia University

The Global Fragility Act and the Way Forward
Through the Global Fragility Act (GFA) and its associated U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability (the Strategy or SPCPS), the U.S. seeks to tackle the root causes and drivers of conflict and instability by elevating prevention and support locally driven solutions; undertake stabilization through inclusive processes; use a whole-of-government approach; strengthen partnerships to maximize impact; and address the interconnected nature of conflicts. Over one year since the submission to Congress of the 10-year plans for each GFA country, interagency government officials will discuss progress and challenges in the execution of the Strategy and plans, as well as lessons learned and success stories. The session will also explore potential reform areas and innovations pertaining to diplomatic, development, and defense centered around GFA’s strategic goals that will be required for successful GFA implementation in the context of rising global conflict and violence, increased geostrategic competition, and overall diminishing collective resources.

Moderator:

• Dr. Joseph Sany, Vice President, Africa Center, USIP

Speakers:

• Anne Witkowsky, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, U.S. Department of State 

• Joe McMenamin, Principal Director in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Stabilization Policy

• Brittany Brown, Acting Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau of Conflict Prevention and Stabilization, USAID 

• Ambassador Michele Sison, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Co-hosted by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Alliance for Peacebuilding

University of Notre Dame
The Keough School of Global Affairs Washington Office
1400 16th Street NW, Suite 120
Washington, DC 20036

Only open to those who have registered for days 2 & 3 of PeaceCon.

Speakers:

• Ambassador George E. Moose, Acting President, USIP

• Alan Fitts, AfP Board Chair; Vice President, Strategy and Operations and Chief of Staff, Corporate Affairs and Communications, American Express

• Liz Hume, Executive Director, AfP

Building Bridges to Peace in Northern Ireland: From the Good Friday Agreement and Beyond

Moderator:

• Ambassador Miguel Diaz, AfP Board Member; John Courtney Murray University Chair Public Service at Loyola University Chicago; former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See

Keynote Speaker:

• Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland

Advancing and Building the Peacebuilding Field: Status Quo No More
As global leaders prepare to gather for the United Nations General Assembly and the Summit of the Future, the world continues to experience record-breaking levels of fragility and violent conflict. How can the peacebuilding community urgently mobilize the public, policymakers, private, bilateral, and multilateral donors, the private sector, and others to engage meaningfully as conflict prevention champions? This session will explore how the peacebuilding community can make the case and take steps to ensure decisionmakers prioritize conflict prevention and peacebuilding to begin to reverse these rising violent conflict trends.

Moderator:

• Liz Hume, Executive Director, AfP

Panelists:

• Ambassador George E. Moose, Acting President, USIP

• Shamil Idriss, CEO, Search for Common Ground

• Peter van Sluijs, Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention, Expert; Coordinator, Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding

Dismantling Systems of Exclusion in Communities: Social Behavioral Change and Trauma-Responsiveness
Social cohesion programming typically focuses on the positive—building trust and connection between groups—and less on addressing the problematic norms, mind states, and behaviors that create and reinforce marginalization. Trauma mind states can drive exclusion within communities, and institutional and peacebuilding community practices, such as reliance on community gatekeepers and tokenism, can further buttress local discriminatory norms and behaviors. This session will explore new and innovative social behavior change and trauma response approaches that break down longstanding barriers to social cohesion work and opportunities to apply and scale the lessons gleaned.

Speakers:

• Dr. Lauren Van Metre, Director, Peace, Climate and Democratic Resilience, National Democratic Institute

• Karen Bernstein, Senior Program Director, Beyond Conflict

• Elisheva Milikowsky, Director, Peace and Reconciliation, aChord Center

• Karla Siu, Executive VP, Strategy and Programs, Greenleaf Integrative

The Use of Violence and Conflict Assessments to Align or Influence Work Across Mission Sector Programming
USAID Missions around the world are using the Agency’s Violence and Conflict Assessment (VCA) to do more than inform future conflict and violence prevention programming. A central objective of these VCAs is to explore how USAID’s other development interventions and operational approaches in sectors like health, education, and environment can effectively mitigate conflict, adapt to avoid unintended harms, and better align to build peace and strengthen social cohesion. Through use cases highlighting the experiences of VCA teams and USAID Mission staff across geographic regions and conflict contexts, this session will explore how participatory analysis can serve as a vehicle for promoting streamlined efforts in pursuit of more inclusive, peaceful, and just societies.

Moderator:

• Jonathan Richter, Director, USAID's Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention, Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization

Speakers:

• Zainab Shaibu, Program Development Specialist, USAID/Nigeria

• David Yamron, Senior Learning and Outreach Specialist, Nickol Global Solutions

• Ted Glenn, Division Chief, Mission Partnerships Division, USAID's Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention

• Yehuda Magid, Conflict Advisor, USAID’s Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention, Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization

Building Cohesive Societies: Comparing and Contrasting Social Cohesion Tools and Strategies Across Contexts
The peacebuilding field continues to grapple with the most effective ways to measure social cohesion and program impact over the short- and long-term. During this session, four organizations will explore lessons gleaned from interventions in vastly different contexts. Mercy Corps will discuss COALESCE, an approach to building social cohesion that focuses on collective action and local engagement. Pact will present Rumbos (“Pathways”), a weighted index that measures social integration and community cohesion that has been tested in interventions supporting Venezuelan migrants and receptor communities in Colombia. Innovations for Poverty Action will share innovative ways researchers have assessed social cohesion in rigorous impact evaluations across a variety of contexts. Catholic Relief Services will highlight the Monthly Interval Resilience Analysis (MIRA) tool used to track community resilience in response to shocks, with particular focus on food security. This session will present and contrast methods, experiences, and practical tools to conceptualize, implement, and measure interventions that aim to build and maintain social cohesion and trust to scale innovation and best practices globally.

Speakers:

• Bridget Kimball, Technical Advisor for Social Cohesion & Justice Integration, Catholic Relief Services

• Ricardo Morel, Director, Peace & Recovery Program, International Poverty Action

• Lina Maria Jaramillo Rojas, Senior Officer for Learning, Evidence, and Impact, Pact

• Alysson Akiko Oakley, Vice President of Learning, Evidence, and Impact (LEAP), Pact

• Charles "Ted" Holmquist, Director of Peace & Conflict, Mercy Corps

The Global Fragility Act and the Way Forward
Through the Global Fragility Act (GFA) and its associated U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability (the Strategy or SPCPS), the U.S. seeks to tackle the root causes and drivers of conflict and instability by elevating prevention and support locally driven solutions; undertake stabilization through inclusive processes; use a whole-of-government approach; strengthen partnerships to maximize impact; and address the interconnected nature of conflicts. Over one year since the submission to Congress of the 10-year plans for each GFA country, interagency government officials will discuss progress and challenges in the execution of the Strategy and plans, as well as lessons learned and success stories. The session will also explore potential reform areas and innovations pertaining to diplomatic, development, and defense centered around GFA’s strategic goals that will be required for successful GFA implementation in the context of rising global conflict and violence, increased geostrategic competition, and overall diminishing collective resources.

Moderator:

• Dr. Joseph Sany, Vice President, Africa Center, USIP

Speakers:

• Anne Witkowsky, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, U.S. Department of State 

• Joe McMenamin, Principal Director in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Stabilization Policy

• Brittany Brown, Acting Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau of Conflict Prevention and Stabilization, USAID 

• Ambassador Michele Sison, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State