Category: Inclusive Narratives

JUNE 21, 2022 | Barcelona – This week, the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) launches 10 Peacebuilding Innovations: a year-long programme of events and initiatives to celebrate the organisation’s 10th anniversary. 

Commencing in July 2022, the series will explore innovative and scalable ideas and practices emerging from IFIT’s local and global work. The inaugural event, Locally-Led Peacebuilding: The IFIT Brain Trust Model, will examine the critical role of ‘go-between’ peace leaders in negotiation and transition contexts. In subsequent online presentations, discussions, and podcast episodes, members of IFIT’s 300+ expert-practitioner community will share their insights on our more important innovations.

Alongside the programme, IFIT is also launching its 10th Anniversary Fund, which will help us to expand and deepen our global programming, including by increasing investment in local peacebuilding innovations developed by members of our country brain trusts. The fund will also support the expansion of lessons-sharing and engagement across our thematic practice groups and bolster our pioneering global initiatives which address systemic gaps in the global architecture for peace. 

“Since its formation in the wake of the Arab Spring, IFIT has been providing integrated policy solutions to help fragile and conflict-affected states achieve more inclusive negotiations and sustainable transitions out of war, crisis or authoritarianism,” said Mark Freeman, IFIT’s Executive Director. “Over the past decade, we’ve harnessed local leadership, supported by international expertise, to respond to challenges of peace and polarization from Latin America to Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.”

We know that the success of peaceful transitions requires long-term engagement. Please support our next 10 years of impact by making a donation today.

Donate to IFIT's 10th Anniversary Fund

Your gift will help us to ensure that our community of  300+ local and international experts advance the cause of peace, democracy and human rights in the complex environments where it is needed most.

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NOVEMBER 11, 2021 | New York and Barcelona – The Institute for Integrated Transitions in collaboration with the Ford Foundation today launched the Global Initiative on Polarization

Through interdisciplinary research, global convenings, and applied work in selected focus countries, the initiative will examine practice-relevant strategies and challenges at the nexus of polarization, conflict and social justice. 

“Polarization is a critical global challenge of our time, but we are only at the beginning of understanding the types of interventions best suited to preventing or reducing its most severe and conflict-generating forms,” said Hilary Pennington, Executive Vice-President of Programs at the Ford Foundation. “We hope this unique collaboration will help civil society leaders and organizations better sustain their work to build more just and inclusive societies.”

The Global Initiative on Polarization not only will provide a deeper understanding of polarization through an international lens, but will also serve as a springboard for future work in this complex yet critical area, allowing for a broad alliance of actors to engage in coordination, strategy formation and joint problem solving on cross-cutting challenges of polarization. 

“Among other things, this collaboration seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge on promising and realistic strategies for combating extreme forms of polarization in both democratic and non-democratic settings”, says Mark Freeman, Executive Director of the Institute for Integrated Transitions. “We also want to help advance understanding of the diversity of underlying drivers of polarization, including deeply-embedded social and political narratives, while charting relevant criteria and metrics for effective interventions at both micro and macro levels.”

Over the next four years, the initiative will encompass global landscape analysis of the major actors and projects in the field; regular convenings that bring together diverse experts and stakeholders around key dilemmas and controversies; “learning by doing” exercises in selected countries; and the development of an interactive resource hub that helps support a community of practice on polarization.

To learn more about the Global Initiative on Polarization, please visit this link.

Media Contacts

Eleanor Weber-Ballard (IFIT)
+44 781 77 77 114
[email protected]

Matthew Creegan (Ford Foundation)
[email protected]

THE FORD FOUNDATION

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization with assets currently valued at $16 billion. For more than 85 years it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

THE INSTITUTE FOR INTEGRATED TRANSITIONS

The Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) is an international NGO dedicated to helping fragile and conflict-affected states achieve more inclusive, just and sustainable negotiations and transitions out of war, crisis or repression. Drawing on a network of over 250+ leaders and experts, the institute’s core work is to serve as an expert resource on integrated policy solutions for locally-led efforts to reduce polarization, increase dialogue and break cycles of conflict. 

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