Achieving peace in the 21st century

ICAN, in partnership with the Permanent Missions of Norway, Sweden, and Canada, the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (UKFCDO), the Ministry of Gender, Child and Welfare of South Sudan, the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and the National Transformational Leadership Institute (NTLI), convened a 1.5-day workshop to discuss how to strengthen community security as a localized, transformative approach for sustainable peace.

On Sunday, February 4, 2024, our dear friend, partner, and colleague, Enass Muzamel, Co-Founder of the Sudanese peacebuilding organization Madaniya, passed away due to a sudden illness. We express our deepest sympathies to Enass’ family, friends, and colleagues in Sudan and around the world.   Together with them, we are in deep shock and mourning for […]

With support from the Rapid Response Window of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund in partnership with the International Civil Society Action Network, Women Relief Aid, a South Sudanese women-led NGO and member of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership, is making remarkable strides to improve realities for women in the country.

On November 22, 2023, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)—in partnership with Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), and Karama hosted a high-level dialogue to reimagine partnerships and coordination between women peacebuilders, international mediation, humanitarian, and development actors in crises and conflict settings. 

ICAN was invited to attend the Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy Conference at the World Forum in The Hague from November 1-2, 2023. Organized by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the conference welcomed more than 750 participants from over 40 countries. On the first day of the conference, ICAN hosted a side event titled: No Feminist Foreign Policy Without Feminist Funding, in partnership with GPPAC.

Today, over 1 billion people still lack access to clean water and electricity. Environmental and climate change exacerbates this problem and exposes fragile and conflict-affected communities to further risk and insecurity. While the link between resource scarcity and conflict is well understood, the potential for natural resource governance to facilitate peacebuilding is less well researched. On Thursday, October 5, 2023, ICAN welcomed Bas Berends, Co-founder and Chief Partnership Officer at OffGridBox, to join our WASL community call.

We are excited to announce the launch of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Mellon Liaison Fellowship at ICAN. Organized by the UMass-Amherst World Studies Interdisciplinary Project (WSIP), and funded by the Mellon Foundation and the UMass-Amherst Provost’s Office, ICAN will host two distinguished UMass PhD Mellon Liaison Fellows in 2023. The Fellowship is linked to the WSIP Graduate Certificate in Decolonial Global Studies (DGS), though UMass PhD students from all departments, colleges, and schools were invited to apply. We are thrilled to introduce the two 2023 UMass Mellon Liaison Fellows: Mariam Parvez Sheikh and Meenakshi Nair.

In the war-torn city of Mosul, Iraq, the scars of conflict run deep. The rise and fall of ISIS left behind a community fractured by violence. ISIS male fighters were killed, captured, or fled, but the women they married, and their children remained. Referred to as “ISIS-associated families”, they are stuck in limbo, without legal status and facing ostracism and isolation. The challenge of reintegrating these families into society is a daunting task, but the Odessa Organization for Women’s Development (Odessa) – a partner of ICAN and member of WASL- is making significant strides in bridging this divide.

On June 21 and June 29, 2023, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) hosted a Risk Appetite Hackathon. This high-level, policy-based and hybrid event, brought together over 300+ partners, including Canadian and local grassroots organizations from around the world, as well as various think tanks and like-minded donors.

On 21st June 2023, the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), jointly organised a side event, “Promoting PVE through Fostering Peace, Resilience, Equality, and Pluralism (PREP) in collaboration with Community-based Actors”, during the 3rd UN Counter-Terrorism Week.

The ongoing war in Syria has resulted in the world’s largest refugee crisis with more than 13 million people forcibly displaced since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. Kilis, a Turkish border city, is the main point of entry from Syria and is home to around 200,000 Syrians. Kareemat, a women-led peacebuilding organization in Kilis, Turkey, is making a profound impact on Syrian refugee women and their families. Supported by ICAN, Kareemat addresses the challenges of displacement, isolation, and economic hardships through psychological support, language classes, and economic empowerment resources, fostering integration and reducing tensions between Turkish and Syrian communities.

We are excited to release our 2022 Annual Report. Highlights include: findings of a 4-year independent evaluation; expansion of She Builds Peace to 32 countries; grants to women-led peacebuilding organizations in 19 countries.