MEDIA CONTACT:
Massimiliano Colonna
Director of Communications, Search for Common Ground
[email protected] I +1 202 768 7539
WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 25 2022 — Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest peacebuilding organization, is marking its 40th anniversary today by calling a divided world to common ground with its 40 Campaign, available at sfcg.org/forty.
Through the campaign, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated organization is recommending 40 actions that people can take to find common ground in their lives, communities, and countries. The first ten actions are being released today to help people give back, get engaged, get trained, and be inspired.
“We are two years into a global pandemic, with wars raging from Ukraine to Yemen, and divisions seeping into families and neighborhoods. It’s understandable to feel powerless and cynical about the future. But hope for a more peaceful world is real and actionable,” said Shamil Idriss, CEO of Search for Common Ground. “We know this from having been on the frontlines of conflict for 40 years – the Cold War in the 80s, the Balkans in the 90s, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the 00’s, and from Myanmar to Yemen today – common ground paves the pathway to lasting peace. That’s possible today, too, if we all act to find common ground.”
Search for Common Ground’s methodology, the Common Ground Approach, builds trust between supposed enemies, triggers collaboration towards shared goals, and generates breakthroughs for peace. Some examples of this work are:
- In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Search for Common Ground’s human rights curriculum for army recruits has reached more than 150,000 soldiers, contributing to a decrease in sexual violence perpetrated by security forces and in the use of rape as a weapon of war.
- In Yemen, Search for Common Ground has trained thousands of women and young people to become Insider Mediators. Today, on the backdrop of the war, these Mediators are solving local conflicts on issues such as access to water and domestic violence.
- In Sri Lanka, Search for Common Ground established the CyberGuardians, a cohort of hundreds of young people who counter online misinformation and hate speech. This work has reached 7 million people (1 in 3 Sri Lankans) and contributed to de-escalating incidents of religious and ethnic violence.
- In Rakhine State, Myanmar, Search for Common Ground’s work has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 people with initiatives to improve access to education, mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and tackle refugee issues.
“These breakthroughs for peace over the last 40 years prove that the Common Ground Approach works. With the 40 Campaign, we are inaugurating our next 40 years of work to transform conflict into cooperation, and calling everyone — from ordinary citizens to world leaders — to focus on and find common ground. It’s the most effective way to face the challenges of the 21st century, from the climate crisis to the specter of nuclear war,” said Idriss.
More about the campaign, including ways to get involved, can be found at sfcg.org/forty.
ENDS
