Effective Inter-Religious Action in Peacebuilding Program Launched

WASHINGTON - Jan. 21, 2015 - PRLog -- The Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium (PEC) recently launched the Effective Inter-religious Action in Peacebuilding Program (EIAP)—a three-year collaborative effort funded by GHR Foundation—to sharpen the effectiveness of inter-religious peacebuilding by focusing on improving measurement.

As headlines increasingly link religion with violence, the EIAP unites religion with peace, in an effort to magnify the effectiveness of inter-religious peacebuilding. The PEC, with its global network of peacebuilding organizations and experts along with its experience in developing whole-of-community approaches to evaluate peacebuilding challenges, aims to support interreligious action as a force for sustainable peace.

“At a time when religious differences are being used as fuel to fan the flames of violence, the role of faith-based initiatives and organizations in building peace could not be more crucial. Inter-religious action can play an important role in developing social cohesion – a key factor in building resilient, peaceful societies,” according to Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) President & CEO Melanie Greenberg.

“We know that engaging faith leaders and communities is a powerful way to improve development outcomes,” said GHR Foundation Chief Executive Officer & Chair Amy Rauenhorst Goldman. “We are pleased to support work that will help measure impact and ultimately result in increased funding by governments, aid agencies, faith-based groups, and local communities.”

For more information on the PEC and the EIAP, including publication links, please visit: http://www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org/our-work/about-ou....

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The Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium (PEC) is a field-wide effort to address the common challenges to measuring the outcomes, results, and impact of peacebuilding programs. Led by the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP), the PEC principal partners include CDA Collaborative Learning, Mercy Corps and Search for Common Ground (SFCG). Initially made possible by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the PEC seeks to: 1) develop methodological rigor of the peacebuilding field’s monitoring and evaluation practices, 2) improve the culture of transparency and shared learning, and 3) foster the use of evidence to inform peacebuilding policy. These three strategically-linked goals provide a holistic, collective, and multi-pronged approach is often aspired to, but rarely executed. In the long-term, the PEC aims to support more sustainable peace through collective learning and improved peacebuilding practices.  To learn more, please visit: http://www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org/our-work/about-ou...

The Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) is the leading institutional home for the most dynamic peacebuilding organizations and practitioners in the US and around the world. With nearly 100 organizational members and 1,000 individual practitioners working in applied conflict prevention and resolution in 153 countries. AfP is a global membership organization that amplifies the strength of its members and forges collaboration and innovation around issues too large for any one organization to tackle by itself.

AfP plays a leadership role in engaging a multitude of sectors including policymakers, funders, the military, and a broad range of related disciplines, developing innovative approaches to peacebuilding. By uniting policymakers with local voices to build policy solutions that reflect on-the-ground realities, training military leaders in peacebuilding principles that prioritize human security, and pioneering solutions that embrace the complexity of the issues at hand, AfP shapes the peacebuilding field as it continues realize its mission of advancing sustainable peace and security worldwide.

GHR Foundation applies entrepreneurial creativity and universal catholic values to foster hope and opportunity where it is needed most. Started in 1965 by Opus founders Gerald A. and Henrietta Rauenhorst, the Foundation seeks transformational change in health, education and global development, and partners with the world’s experts to achieve it. This results in a powerful exchange of ideas and a community of thought leaders providing locally-driven solutions. Despite global challenges, we meet each task with entrepreneurial optimism because we have seen the impact of strategic, thoughtful change.  http://www.ghrfoundation.org/