We believe that everyone affected by armed conflict should have the tools they need to handle conflict peacefully. That means understanding and addressing the real reasons people turn against each other: fear, loss, bereavement, exclusion, broken systems, economic hardship, scarcity, and trust that has shattered.
With that in mind, we have four priorities when it comes to peace building. These are specifically designed to build peace across the borderlands of Sudan, South Sudan and Abyei.
1) Root our intervention in local realities.
As always, we start by listening, with structured community consultations across six localities: two in Sudan, one in Abyei, and three in South Sudan. Inclusivity is important to us, so we’ll get out of the urban centres and into the villages and cattle corridors, hearing from over 5,000 people who live and work where conflict is fought and felt.
This listening phase helps us understand how conflict and economic pressure are playing out locally, how it is experienced differently by people of different ethnicities, ages, genders and livelihoods. We’ll learn what people see as the biggest risks, and what solutions they believe can work.
It will also help identify what is already helping communities cope and where support can make the greatest difference. We will work alongside what’s already happening, creating bespoke solutions for each community.
Vitally, the consultation gives us a way to find those who are already trusted, who are already building peace in their communities, who might become members of an Advisory Group, and, with training, be able to give early warning of conflict and intervene with mediation. This network of local peacebuilders will eventually number 350 across the area.
2) Provide a place for conflict resolution
In fragile environments, disputes do not disappear. They are either resolved or they grow.
How then are they resolved? By patient preparatory work; months or even years of relationship building, bringing people to a place where they can even talk to the other side.
We set up Peace Conferences in response to need, to bring the right people together to have difficult conversations. The solutions that result are durable and sustainable because they are developed by the people who will implement them. They take different forms, are bespoke and responsive to need.
For example…
We mediate between representatives of different groups of people who use a contended water point together, to work out how to manage use of it peacefully.
Several hundred people gather in a central location to plan cattle migrations across farmland.
We help the parties involved negotiate accountability for tax revenue collection.
We bring women together, or young people, to make sure their voices are heard by chiefs and elders – so that peace conferences are inclusive and relational.
3) Harness cross-border markets as a way to unite people
By definition, markets bring people together. If relationships are broken, that can be a cause of conflict. Then markets become unsafe places.
If those conflicts can be managed, and people kept safe, markets become more than economic spaces: they can become neutral, shared ground, places where people cooperate because cooperation benefits everyone. They create sustainable livelihoods including for women and young people.
Markets also provide opportunities for locally accountable governance - like local chambers of commerce - regulating, planning and managing the markets and collecting revenue to provide vital services.
In Amiet Peace Market in Abyei, this means we actively support:
Community courts – providing access to justice and promoting the rule of law.
Joint protection committees - providing security in a way that’s accepted by all groups.
Opportunities for women and youth, not just men, and groups who might otherwise be marginalised, to engage with these civic structures.
4) Link local realities to national decision-making
National challenges in both Sudan and South Sudan are felt strongly in local communities, especially in borderland areas that are far from centres of power. This isolation limits fair representation and can deepen fragmentation.
With the evidence gathered through consultations and Advisory Groups of local volunteer peacebuilders, we can engage in dialogue that connects local voices with national decision-makers. The goal is to make sure local realities shape the policies and decisions that affect local life and reduce the risk of borderlands being left to absorb crises alone.
This is slow, long-term work. But it starts with changes you can see. An argument solved without a fight. A market where people feel safer. Rules that are clearer. Access that is fairer. Communities seeing real benefits from working together.
Peacebuilding is about building bridges across divides. With patience. With honesty. With practical steps that help people build stability from the ground up.