PeaceCon 2023: Beyond Fragile Ground
New Peacebuilding Architectures for Today and the Future
While the peacebuilding field has grown significantly over the last 20 years, an unprecedented number of global crises will pose a challenge in the years ahead. Currently, nearly a quarter of the world's population lives in environments rife with chronic instability, conflict or violence. And even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world was already experiencing a 30-year high in violent conflict. How the peacebuilding field chooses to evolve in the face of such complexity and uncertainty will determine its future success — and this year’s PeaceCon 2023 seeks to provide a firm foundation on which to build more effective, sustainable solutions to fragility and conflict.
On May 3, USIP, in partnership with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, kickstarted PeaceCon 2023 by bringing together senior officials, thought leaders, policymakers and practitioners from around the world to explore this year’s theme, “Beyond Fragile Ground: New Peacebuilding Architectures for Today and the Future,” as well as discuss new strategic approaches and peacebuilding frameworks to manage conflict and prevent violence.
To learn more about Days 2 and 3 of PeaceCon 2023, please visit AfP’s website. Continue the conversation on Twitter using #PeaceCon2023 and #BeyondFragileGround.
Agenda
9:00am-9:15am | Welcome and Opening Remarks
- Lise Grande
President, U.S. Institute of Peace - Liz Hume
Executive Director, Alliance for Peacebuilding - Charles Bolden
Board Vice Chair, Alliance for Peacebuilding; Former Administrator, NASA
9:15am-10:15am | Opening High-Level Plenary
How Are Multi and Bilateral Donors' Policies and Resources Meeting the Demands of Increasing Violent Conflict and Fragility and Building Sustainable Peace
- Lise Grande, moderator
President, U.S. Institute of Peace - Robert Jenkins
Assistant to the Administrator, USAID Bureau for Conflict Prevention & Stabilization - Awa Dabo
Director and Deputy Head, UN Peacebuilding Support Office, Department of Political & Peacebuilding Affairs - Caroline Bahnson
Senior Operations Officer, World Bank Fragility, Conflict, & Violence Unit - Ambassador Deike Potzel
Director General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilization, Peacebuilding, and Humanitarian Assistance
10:15am-11:15am | Second High-Level Plenary
Bright Spots in a Bleak Landscape: New Constellations of Peace
- Melanie Greenberg, moderator
Managing Director, Peacebuilding, Humanity United - Maria Paula Prada
Advisor to the Presidency, Colombian Truth Commission - María Victoria Llorente
Executive Director of Fundación Ideas para la Paz - Rajaa Altalli
Co-Founder, Center for Civil Society & Democracy - Julia Roig
Founder, The Horizons Project
11:15am-11:30am | Break & Networking
11:30am-12:45pm | Breakout Sessions
IN-PERSON ONLY
- P/CVE: Workshop on Preventing & Countering Violent Extremism: Peacebuilding Lessons from Pakistan’s Experience
- POLICY/ADVOCACY: Preventing Silos from Undermining the Prevention-Oriented Canon of Law: How to Integrate and Successfully Implement the GFA, EWGAPA, & WPS Act
HYBRID
- INTERRELIGIOUS/UKRAINE: Advancing Nonviolent Civilian-Based Defense and Religious Peacebuilding: Case of War in Ukraine
- P/CVE: New Research in P/CVE and Violence Prevention
12:45pm-2:15pm | Lunch & Lunch Sessions
IN-PERSON ONLY
- BOOK TALK: The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global leadership Through Soft Power by Daniel F. Runde
2:15pm-3:30pm | Breakout Sessions
IN-PERSON ONLY
- CONFLICT INTEGRATION: How to Practically Integrate Conflict Prevention across Humanitarian and Development Programming
- POLICY/ADVOCACY: New Agenda for Peace and the Summit of the Future: No More Napping for the Peacebuilding Field
HYBRID
- HUMAN RIGHTS/ATROCITY PREVENTION: Rethinking How Elite Capture and Corruption of the Security Sector Drives Violence
- RESEARCH/UKRAINE: Conflict Observatory: Documenting Russian-Perpetrated War Crimes and Other Atrocities in Ukraine
3:30pm-3:45pm | Break & Networking
3:45pm-4:45pm | Closing Fireside Chat
3 D's: Diplomacy, Development, & Defense in the U.S. Government
- Liz Hume, moderator
Executive Director, Alliance for Peacebuilding - Anne Witkowsky
Assistant Secretary of Bureau of Conflict & Stabilization Operations, U.S. Department of State - Robert Jenkins
Assistant to the Administrator, USAID Bureau for Conflict Prevention & Stabilization - Joe McMenamin
Principal Director for Counternarcotics & Global Threats, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC)
