Sheldon Himelfarb

This third meeting of the Roundtable solicited views from the membership on the direction of each of the four initiatives launched by the Roundtable in December 2011: using data-sharing to improve coordination, sensing emerging conflicts, adapting agricultural extension to peacebuilding, and harnessing systems engineering to peacebuilding.

Members of the steering committee for each initiative described activities undertaken since the last Roundtable meeting and activities proposed for the coming six months.  Moderated discussion followed enabling each group to receive guidance on follow-on activities, such as follow-on workshops, technology demonstrations, or pilot projects in the field.  Staff also described to members a vision for peacebuilding in the future organized around the "PeaceTech Laboratory," an incubator for innovative technologies and applications that support the work of peacebuilders in the field.

This Workshop brought together experts in peacebuilding, information technology, and interagency coordination to identify the needs a data sharing system must address to secure widespread adoption by both government and non-government organizations for use in managing peacebuilding activities.

To understand why coordination is so challenging, Workshop participants discussed the principal technological, ethical and organizational challenges faced by peacebuilers as they attempt to cooperate in building peace. A session on how to improve the impact of shared data examined technologies to improve NGO monitoring and evaluation processes. Finally, participants learned about UNITY, software developed to make visible the scope and scale of humanitarian and peacebuilding activity in a conflict zone.

This Workshop brought together experts in peacebuilding, agricultural extension, and information technology to determine how peacebuilding activities could be delivered as components of existing extension services in conflict and post-conflict zones.

Participants investigated how conflict manifests in rural communities and the specific ways in which extension and advisory services could be used to affect such problems. In three breakout sessions, participants brainstormed what new skills, organization, and technologies might be required to integrate peacebuilding into extension activities.

 The goal of this meeting was to determine the set of problems faced by peacebuilders in the field that the Roundtable will address over the coming year. The day’s four sessions considered potential targets identified by Roundtable members at its first meeting in May and in subsequent discussions. Each session included a brief overview of a problem and possible solution set by the Roundtable Secretariat staff.  

Never before have the media played a more integral role in conflict management. At the same time, funding agencies and policymaking bodies have greater expectations for demonstrating impact and efficacy in this area. To meet these growing needs, media development practitioners, donors, international broadcasters and methodologists have collectively authored guiding principles to improve monitoring and evaluation of media interventions in conflict zones. On September 9, 2011 the Caux Guiding Principles were presented by those organizations who convened the unprecedented working session in Caux, Switzerland, where drafting of these Principles began.

There has been a surge of enthusiasm and activity around crisis mapping recently, thanks to high profile success stories such as Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, and Kenya. But, as the field matures, how do we turn this information into insight that engages and empowers  local communities in conflict prevention and peacebuilding?  USIP and Ushahidi, the crisis mapping pioneer, explored these questions with mappers from conflict zone countries and policymakers in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), Peace Research Institute-Oslo (PRIO), and Royal Norwegian Embassy hosted a book launch and international symposium on the next decade of UNSCR 1325 on the afternoon of May 5th and all day on May 6th. The symposium further examined the issues of women and war, power and protection in the 21st century, and explored the implementation of gender-sensitive policies in defense, diplomacy, development, and the role of documentary film, media and the arts in this endeavor.

This planning workshop was conducted to elicit information from the Roundtable membership about the opportunities for and challenges to peacebuilding around the world.  It used a structured problem-solving approach to help organize discussions, identify common interests, and consider ways in which technology, science, and engineering may play a role in advancing the cause of peace.  Following the workshop, staff created a draft strategic plan for the Roundtable's inaugural meeting, held on May 17, 2011.  

This event, held in Palo Alto, discussed the latest approaches to understanding the role of new media in peace and conflict. The conference brought together a diverse array of innovators from across the public, private and academic communities to share research in progress, with a particular focus on harnessing the insights of Silicon Valley companies whose products have been key enablers of political activism from Tehran to Tunisia, Cairo to Colombia.

USIP's Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention and Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding co-hosted a panel discussion on Pakistan’s media sector. The panel analyzed the role media plays in covering extremism and international relationships and discussed ways in which the media can contribute to an alternative narrative on Pakistani social issues, particularly in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

From Iran to Kenya to Colombia, the impact of new and social media on movements for political and social change has been the subject of much discussion, and controversy. USIP's Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding and George Washington University's Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication hosted an event exploring the role of new media in contested politics around the world. 

Held at the magnificent Newseum in Washington, D.C., this summit considered specific recommendations on ways to harness the power of media for conflict prevention. Senior media makers, policymakers and powerful change agents who are key to the development of new ideas with the potential to reduce future conflict, convened at this summit.

USIP invited an expert panel to participate in a frank discussion of the conflict between the Iranian regime and the opposition and its implications for the Obama administration.

USIP's Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding hosted a full-day multimedia showcase of state-of-the-art simulation and "serious gaming" tools that promise to transform the way that peacebuilding organizations train, plan and collaborate. The "Smart Tools for Smart Power" event featured presentations from such innovators as IBM, the Army War College, EBay, Lockheed Martin, Second Life, and USIP's own Education and Training Center.  U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer Beth Noveck presented the keynote address.

The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding partnered with National Academies of Science and of Engineering to launch a major, multi-year roundtable on science, technology, and peacebuilding. An initial planning meeting co-organized by the National Academies and USIP was held on March 12 to clarify the scope of the proposed roundtable’s activities.