About Peace Tools

Peace Tools facilitates communication and learning for parties engaged in conflict resolution and peace processes. It is a suite of applications and resources that have been developed from the extensive experience of diverse group of conflict resolution and peacebuilding professionals working across the globe. Peace Tools integrates commercially available technologies with tailored knowledge resources and applications drawn from the experiences of both its founding authors, as well as the perspective and continued learning of its users over time.

As a communications tool, it brings stakeholders into online collaborative shared spaces to exchange information and work together towards mitigating and transforming conflict. Peace Tools is built on the Groove platform, which allows this communication to take place regardless of the location of the participants, all that is required is a computer and a connection to the internet.

As a learning tool, it is both a repository of continuously updated information on conflict resolution and peacebuilding, as well as an interactive tool that assists individual users to enhance their knowledge and capacity to understand both the theoretical and practical aspects of conflict situations, as well as to analyze and develop alternative courses of action.

Uses

By providing mechanisms and applications for public and private collaborations (i.e. often requiring confidential / secured environments), the tool further enhances the capacity of people and organizations to work collectively on transforming conflict. Its open architecture allows stakeholders to de-velop, implement and integrate best practices and appropriate Conflict Prevention, Mitigation and Resolution (CPMR) initiatives - including traditional, culturally specific methods - drawn from resources internationally and their own experiences.

Peace Tools is a living vital resource for individuals and institutions working on conflict resolution and peacebuliding internationally. We are grateful to the World Economic Forum's Transitions to Peace Initiative for providing the opportunity to convene leading practitioners and thinkers whose contributions were a significant part of Peace Tools' initial conceptual frameworks.

Peace Tools is a work in progress. Many segments of the Peace Tools are being piloted by the Peace Appeal Foundation in Sri Lanka, in conjunction with our IT partners, Infoshare and Groove Networks.