Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP) Annual Meeting “What Future for Peacebuilding? Needs, Policy, Action” took place in Geneva at the Maison de la Paix on the 21st November 2014.

The seventh edition organised by Geneva Peacebuilding Platform placed face-to-face together different actors of the peacebuilding scene with their representatives: institutions, government, universities, international organisations and business sector.

Within three sessions of panels and discussions, the conference was framed by the main question “How does Peacebuilding practice need to change today in order to be ready to face the future?”. Having the past as a background in order to learn from it and the present as a useful tool, the sessions presented different regional and general perspectives as well.

During the first session defined by the statement “Peacebuilding: What spectrum of perspectives?”, the Ambassador of Sierra Leone Yvette Stevens launched the issue of “youth unemployment” in her country, a matter concerning, in fact, many other countries. Starting from this point of view, the discussion focused on the exclusion of youth from major societal decisions and the link with peacebuilding practices. Steve Killelea, Founder and Executive Chairman at Institute for Economics and Peace in Sydney explained shortly the importance of peace in the business sector.

Helena Puig Larrauri Co-founder of Build Up, a social enterprise working at the intersection of technology, civic engagement and peace, put forth an interesting approach concerning the future of the peacebuilding practice. She discussed the “non-traditional” tools for peace having as a background different examples from Cyprus or Egypt. In the aforementioned cases, individuals or local community started to build up frames, online platforms in order to solve local problems concerning peace and non-violence in their communities. Helena Puig Larrauri underlined the importance of online tools in building sustainable peace, as they are more efficiently and easy to get.

To have a brief review and interpretation, Gabrielle Schlipf, graphic recorder from Berlin, MOMIK, was invited to draw effectively the presentation and discussions.

Peace Revolution was delighted to have taken part in this event, to absorb and to share ideas concerning the future of peacebuilding and its practice around the world!

This Annual Meeting took part of the Geneva Peace Week 17th – 21st November 2014, under the patronage of United Nations (UN) and GPP. GPP is a joint project of four institution: The Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Interpeace and the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva (QUNO).