This handbook is a tool to help community leaders implement urban peace-building programs.
The lessons here are particularly relevant to contested spaces in multi-cultural contexts, where people are suffering oppression from different forces, such as criminal groups, political tensions, economic exclusion, discrimination, etc. Most of these urban zones are also inhabited by people living under poverty and extreme poverty, like most marginal urban neighborhoods in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The handbook is directed to community leaders, community based organizations, faith-based organizations and local facilitators who want to conduct a reflective process of peace-building.
The handbook is not merely directed to promote peace-culture values, but to promote an active and participatory analysis of the main roots of conflict in the community.
The steps, clearly defined, promote creative strategies for relevant change on different levels: enhancing interpersonal trust among the inhabitants, improving the relationship in the community, applying dialogue, and promoting a better relationship with the public sector and key policymakers.
In our experience, young-adult leaders are the main beneficiaries of this material, however, adult leaders are not excluded from this peace-building methodology.
The handbook was prepared in consultation with a larger number of professionals, including practitioners and experienced leaders in conflict transformation from more than 10 countries.
This piece is also product of AFSC’s and partners’ experience in implementing local peace network strategies across the last five years in the region.