Peaceful Change Initiative

Peaceful Change Initiative (Charity)
Formation	1 February 2012
Headquarters	25b Lloyd Baker Street, London, UK
Membership	•  Layma Abusahmin •  Sarah Abusaoud •  Sulayman Alshami •  Abderrahman Aribi •  Erika Atzori •  Artak Ayunts •  Raj Bhari •  Riyad Boumtari •  Russell Brown •  Abdulqadir Bughararah •  Adam Spencer Darby •  Taha Elhassadi •  Bashar Eltalhi •  Anthony Foreman •  Jim Freeman •  Farah Hassouna •  Michael Holland •  Fleur Auzimour Just •  Tetiana Kalenychenko •  Hadil Krekshi •  Andrii Kryshtal •  Suhayl Lahayhoul •  Nada Markous •  Craig Oliphant •  Abigail Orr •  Anton Shihoff •  Mouhaned Terhouni •  Akram Wadi •  Alex Williams •  David Alexander Wood
NGO-builder funded by the British foreign office

Peaceful Change Initiative is a UK limited company founded in 2012 and registered as a charity in the UK on 4 August 2015. Several of the team members have deep ties to the British foreign office, and one member Craig Oliphant, was a member of the intelligence disinformation outfit Integrity Initiative.

The focus areas of PCi align conspicuously with the Foreign Office's priorities, including Western Balkans, Ukraine, Black Sea, Serbia, Kosovo, Syria and Libya programs, and many other, building client networks of "civil society" activists and "strengthening the skills" of local leaders. In Syria, they "support stability in opposition-held areas by helping local institutions to deliver better services"

Official narrative

"We work with communities to prevent or reduce violence that has been triggered by radical and divisive change. We aim to mitigate the effects of violence on people’s lives, while laying the foundations for long-term peace and stability."

Charitable objectives

Our goal is to promote conflict resolution and reconciliation at the national and international levels. Our objectives are relieving suffering, poverty and distress, and building and maintaining social cohesion, resilience, and trust within and between communities. These objectives are achieved by the following activities:

1. Investigating and identifying causes of conflict.
2. Examining potential solutions to the conflict – or approaches to constructively engage with causes of conflict – through participatory research and analysis.
3. Building the capacity of communities to play active and constructive roles in managing conflict

resolution and decision making processes, with a particular focus on socially and economically disadvantaged groups within communities.

1. Mediating and facilitating dialogue between different parties to the conflict and affected communities, enabling the discussion of possible solutions and building relationships of trust.
2. Recommending to the international community and the parties involved measures that can support the resolution of conflicts or contribute to preventing future conflicts.
3. Promoting respect for human rights among individuals and groups, and raising awareness of human rights issues.
4. Publishing reports on the causes of and recommended solutions to particular conflicts, and making these freely available for public fruition.

All activities aim to maintain the charity’s commitment to impartiality.

Working closely with the Foreign Office on Ukraine

On 27 November 2019, PCi was invited to provide input and ideas at a Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) roundtable on conflict transformation in Eastern Ukraine, held at the FCO in London. The 30 participants included experts from thinktanks and NGOs, together with the Director of the Eastern Europe & Central Asia Directorate (EECAD) and other FCO staff and Whitehall stakeholders (DFID, Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office), as well as personnel from the British Embassy in Kyiv, including the British Ambassador to Ukraine.

Craig Oliphant from PCi was invited to present on one of the panels at the roundtable, sharing experience from other post-Soviet protracted conflicts and other relevant examples. After the plenary session, the meeting was divided into working groups. Anthony Foreman from PCi contributed ideas on local community initiatives and Craig Oliphant gave input relating to the inter-state (Russia-Ukraine) and international dimension of issues around the conflict. The findings and main conclusions from this roundtable were to form the basis of a report prepared for the CSSF programme at the British Embassy in Kyiv. It is hoped that PCi will be able to explore further opportunities for providing practical and tailored ideas for the embassy and Whitehall policy desks focused on Ukraine.

Armenia

In 2019, PCi worked with an Armenian NGO, Youth Cooperation Centre of Dilijan (YCCD), to "promote youth participation in decision making related to peace and governance issues". 15 young activists were equipped with the skills to become ‘trainers’ and take their skills back into their communities, to work with other young people to engage them in peace and governance issues."

Libya

In Libya, PCi organised a three-day youth forum, bringing together over 95 young activists ,to "strengthen existing youth networks, while also promoting the formation of new and emerging networks" and Facilitate knowledge exchange between activists.

Funding and Finance

The group receives funding from mainly The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but also The European Union,The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, The United Nations Development Programme, and The German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). The 2016-17 and 2017-18 Annual Reports are no longer available at their website.

 

Known member

1 of the 30 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Craig Oliphant	Member of the Integrity Initiative's Integrity Initiative/Cluster/UK/Inner Core

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