Foundations for Peace celebrates a decade of collaboration around peace-building

Ten years ago, ten foundations came together to form the Foundations for Peace (FFP) Network. A testament to the group’s strength, in November 2016 the same ten foundations met at Philanthropy House in Brussels to celebrate a decade of collaborative efforts around peace building.

As activist funders, FFP believes that peace building work must build from within the affected community, society or country in question, in order for it to be sensitive to local needs and sustainable in the long-term. This, however, requires that development funding, both national and international, takes cognisance of this and invests more – both strategically and substantially – in long-term indigenous peace building work. On FFP’s tenth anniversary, Ambika Satkunanathan, Chair of the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, delivered a searing indictment of the negative impacts aid can have on peace and conflict transformation if not managed sensitively. The remarks, which can be downloaded below, draw from Ambika’s own experiences in Sri Lanka.

More broadly, the remarks set up some of the major issues which will be discussed at the forthcoming Global Summit on Community Philanthropy, to be held 1 – 2 December 2016 in Johannesburg.

Download the remarks of Ambika Satkunanathan

FFP on their 10th anniversary in Brussels