After decades of progress in the post-World War II world order, global democracy levels in the 21st century are in stark decline and authoritarian regimes have found renewed political and economic strength. Given the integral role that inclusive governance plays in a peaceful society, USIP sought cutting-edge ideas from peacebuilding practitioners to examine which techniques and approaches work best when using human rights and democracy training as peacebuilding tools. The selected projects offer the potential to generate policy recommendations on how to forge effective democracy and human rights education and training efforts that successfully build and sustain peace overseas.  

USIP’s review process includes staff experts and a panel of national and international experts drawn from outside the Institute. Ultimately, the final decision on awards is made by the Institute’s Board. The research projects selected focus on peacebuilding in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

The new U.S. Institute of Peace grantees are:

• Center for Research and Popular Education (Bogota, Colombia): The independent non-governmental organization will use the grant to engage civil society members and the Colombian national police to constructively engage on human rights issues in the Cali and Cauca areas of Colombia ($100,000).
• Conciliation Resources (London, United Kingdom): The independent non-governmental organization, in partnership with the Stanford Law School Human Rights Clinic, will use the grant to analyze the impact that recent constitutional changes have had on democracy and human rights education and training efforts in Kashmir ($99,438).
• Dialogue Action (London, United Kingdom): The independent non-governmental organization will use the grant to identify the key barriers, as perceived by youth actors, preventing youth inclusion in political and social processes, as well as what democracy-related interventions by peacebuilding practitioners are best at addressing these barriers in emerging democracies ($100,000).
• Harvard College (Cambridge, Massachusetts): The grant will be used by the university to build on an ongoing project, in partnership with five other universities, researching the participatory nature of successful global peace processes and the relative emphasis by governments and civil society actors on good governance and human rights principles in those cases. Lessons will be applied to a toolkit for Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders working to address their conflict ($100,000).
• Institute for Integrated Transitions (Barcelona, Spain): The independent non-governmental organization will use the grant to identify the most effective approaches and tools related to democracy and human rights trainings that civic actors can use to advance peacebuilding in hybrid regimes (governments that combine democratic and authoritarian traits) ($100,000).
• New York University (New York, New York): The university will use the grant to fill a gap in existing research on the extent to which democracy and human rights training can reduce violence in countries suffering from civil conflict, as tested during South Sudan’s upcoming national elections ($99,591).
• University of Denver (Denver, Colorado): The university will use the grant to examine peace agreements based on ethnic pacts and use the research to improve human rights education, outreach and practice as the basis for preventing and resolving identity-based violent conflict in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East ($77,214).