In 1999 I had a feeling that people on the ground in areas of hot conflict were beginning to organize to stop people killing each other. So I asked Dylan Mathews to find out how many effective locally-led peace initiatives existed globally at that time. He was able to identify 350 civilian peace-building initiatives worldwide, of which it reported on 50 of the most effective. As a result the organisation Peace Direct was set up, to support grassroots peace-builders, because local people tend to know best how to resolve local conflicts.
Peace Direct’s research in turn resulted in Insight on Conflict, an initiative that has now become a leading online resource on local peace-building in conflict zones worldwide and currently reports on over 1,488 peace-building organisations across 44 different conflict-affected regions. The people involved are some of the most courageous people in the world, so do read their stories here.