Now available for pdf download (6.54 MB) , the Grassroots Peacebuilding Mentors Training Program Guidebook is a product of the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute’s (MPI) three-year experience and lessons learned implementing the Grassroots Peacebuilding Mentors Training Program. By documenting and collating key activities and processes from the mentoring program, MPI aims to contribute to addressing gaps in available resources on mentoring and peacebuilding.

MPI hopes that this Guidebook can support the capacity-building needs of organizations, particularly peacebuilding and developmental organizations, to develop mentors within their institutions who can nurture the skills and capacities of other peacebuilders. Mentorship is an effective way of developing people into leaders and champions that can advocate and initiate transformative change. At MPI, we believe that this approach answers John Paul Lederach’s call to nurturing a “critical mass” of peacebuilders that are taking small, consistent steps to build and sustain justpeace.

  pdf Download the ebook here (6.54 MB) .

Watch a video of the book launching:

We are pleased to share that the Winter 2022 edition of Intersections, a publication of the Mennonite Central Committee, was compiled by MPI Board Member Grace Hercyk and includes an article by MPI's Peacebuilding Programs Coordinator, Rhea Silvosa. The theme of this issue is Do No Harm, conflict sensitivity and living into peace. Rhea's article is titled Conflict sensitivity, capacity building and peacebuilding education.

The following article was first published in the Winter 2022 issue of Mennonite Central Committee’s publication, Intersections.

Since its inception, the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) in the Philippines has served as a resource for peacebuilders. Through its education and training programs, MPI offers courses that are relevant and applicable to grassroots peacebuilders’ current contexts as well as reflective of ongoing development in the field of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. To date, MPI has trained over 2,300 peace activists from more than 60 countries through its in-person Annual Peacebuilding Training Program and, most recently, through its Virtual Peacebuilding Training Program. MPI hopes that the knowledge and skills gained from these courses can contribute to building and sustaining peace writ large in Asia-Pacific and beyond.

Since 2014, MPI has included courses and modules on conflict sensitivity and the Do No Harm approach. How has MPI integrated and practiced these concepts in its programming? In this article, I offer my reflections and insights into this question based on conversations I have had with my colleagues and my experience working with MPI.

A shared statement by peacebuilding organizations
International Day of Peace, 21 September 2021

The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute was a signatory to this statement. Click here for more information and to see a full list of the signatories. Visit the UN 2021 International Day of Peace website here.

Without peace, development will falter

Without justice, hope will wither

Without inclusion, we will all be left behind.

Can we find our way back? 18 months into a global pandemic, our hearts go out to those who are suffering. We are in awe of the extraordinary efforts by so many to save lives and offer comfort. Yet, in too many ways, humanity has fallen short. COVID-19 has shown us the fragility of our institutions and the fault lines in international cooperation, just as the need for unified action is more urgent than ever in the face of the expanding climate emergency.

In 1945, the United Nations was founded to ‘promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’. But the steady progress that has been made is now at risk, not only from the challenges we face but also from the way we respond to them. Responses to crises that increase violence, injustice, and exclusion will exacerbate development losses and human suffering, leaving many behind.

As we face the stark human-made realities of a warming planet, we must redouble our peace efforts, to help mediate and navigate the immense shifts in power and resources that will be needed to forestall further avoidable temperature rise, to prevent and resolve the conflicts that may be exacerbated or precipitated by environmental destruction; and to prepare the path to a more sustainable, peaceful, and equitable future. We must re-dedicate ourselves to the 2030 Agenda vision of a global partnership of all stakeholders to foster peace, justice, and inclusion, not just in development, but as a goal to unite all efforts to transform our world and respond to the challenges we face. Peace is not an add-on: peace is the way.

As organizations devoted to building peace and justice around the world, we call on the international community to:

• Refocus on peace, justice, and inclusion, in development, in crisis response, and in addressing the climate emergency. The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs show that development gains are only sustainable if accompanied by efforts by all governments to foster peace, justice, and inclusion. We know that for crisis response to be effective, it needs to be transformative, rooted in the needs of affected communities, and tied to long-term efforts to further peace, development, and human rights. Now we need to embed these lessons in all our actions to address the climate emergency and its root causes. As governments come together this year, we urge delegates to recall that no technical or political solutions will be sustainable unless they are inclusive and equitable, foster trust, include mechanisms to address grievances and promote resilience, respect human rights, and leave no one behind.
• Mainstream and step up investment in peace. Meeting the challenges that the world now faces will require significant resources. These investments will have a more sustainable impact when they are crafted to foster peace, justice, and inclusion as an integral part of their health, humanitarian, economic, or security objectives. We call on member states to mainstream conflict-sensitive and risk-informed approaches that are people-centered and promote long-term sustainable peace in all funding for crisis response and development, and in that spirit to support the upcoming UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Financing for Peacebuilding.
• Prioritize inclusion and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. The inclusion and participation of all people is vital, including women, youth, minorities, indigenous peoples, and those with disabilities. This year has been witness to a deeper focus on entrenched and systemic patterns of intersectional exclusion, including racism, as highlighted in the establishment of a Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. We support OHCHR’s Agenda Towards Transformative Change for Racial Justice and Equality. The bedrock of sustainable development is inclusion, and it is just as important amid crisis where engaging endogenous capacities and perspectives is critical.
• Step away from securitized responses. This month marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The horror of that moment stays with us, and we continue to grieve. And we also grieve for all the lives lost since then. The preoccupation with counterterrorism has not made the world any safer. We have seen increasingly militarized and violent reactions to political dissent, the normalization of torture and extrajudicial killing, and international relations determined more by the perceived security needs of a few, rather than the right to peace and development of the many. Violence is never the answer. As our communities are ever more buffeted by change, governments must protect civic space, become more accountable and inclusive, and respect international humanitarian and human rights law.