Peacebuilding

Violent conflicts shape development in individual countries and entire regions over long periods of time. Even in areas where ethnic, social and political tensions have not developed into war or civil war, aggression and violence affect the everyday lives of the people who live there. Anyone living or, worse yet, forced to grow up under destructive or instable conditions will tend to reproduce prejudices and violence without reflection. But peace can be developed, tensions and prejudices can be dispelled. Inwent is dedicated to peacebuilding and the rehabilitation of societies in crisis regions and offers a wide range of programmes and projects to this end. Together with local institutions and organisations, we work on encouraging and empowering people in our partner countries to find their own paths to peace and to approach conflicts constructively. Our “Peace Education in Central America and Columbia” in one example of a programme that communicates constructive approaches to both violence and to traditional roles and clichés. The one-year course supported by Inwent’s Global Campus 21® internet platform, is organised into three individual levels: Participants learn about conflict transformation, human rights or gender. They participate in developing a network for teaching peace, and lay the societal foundation for a peaceful future.


The media play an important role in peacebuilding, for they can influence people in a number of ways. A free and independent press is capable of dismantling prejudices and encouraging people to work together. This is no easy task however: Employees at mass media in developing and transition countries who report from or about crisis regions and conflicts have to fulfil a difficult role. The advanced training programmes offered by the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) support participants in doing justice to this role. They are given the skills they need to report critically and responsibly and as such contribute to resolving conflicts or even preventing them from erupting in the first place. The IIJ offers a two-week course in Ghana for print and online journalists in ECOWAS member nations (Economic Community of West African State) in which the conditions and limits of conflict-sensitive reporting are explored. Participants also seek possible ways of using the influence of the media to help prevent war.

Information from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on the topic