December 2020 Newsletter
By: Nyu Cic
Tags: Peace, Newsletter, Sdg16plus, Justice, Inclusion

We are approaching the end of an extraordinary year… A year where we have had to re-assess everything around us: not only our security and health, the safety of our loved ones, the resilience of our institutions, but also ourselves and our own strength. As we approach the close of 2020, you will hear a lot of people saying that next year will be better, that we will get out of lockdown, that the vaccine is close, that we will return to normal. But the reality is that there will be no going “back to normal”. Our world will look different. Millions more people will face unemployment, hunger and extreme poverty. We will continue to see poverty and anger undermining the resilience of many institutions. Our respect for human rights, tolerance, and democracy will be further tested under the weight of our own prejudices, and societies’ increasing polarization and escalating anger. We will likely see countries and institutions stumble, with many leaders failing where others prevail.

We, at Pathfinders, have done what we can to contribute to and amplify solutions in 2020, with new research, data, analysis, and commentary on the challenges arising in areas of peace, justice, and inclusion. Throughout, we have presented new information; pinpointed emerging challenges; highlighted risks and possibilities; underlined the urgency of the situation; and identified evidence-based strategies and solutions. We have repeatedly — urgently — made the case for addressing crisis issues of peace, justice, and inclusion now before we have bigger problems on our hands.

In 2021, we will do our best to contribute to strengthening leadership, governance, and institution-building towards peace, justice, and inclusion. As we move forward, Pathfinders plans to shift more attention to communications and advocacy in our work and to highlight the policy coherence among and interlinkages between justice, inequality, exclusion, and violence. We are already planning our engagement with numerous crucial platforms that give us an opportunity to make issues of peace, justice and inclusion the basis of a global reset and resilient recovery. In 2021, we will ensure that the phrases: “halve global violence!”, “people-centered justice!”, “bridge the gap!”, and “prevent exclusion!” are heard loud and clear throughout corridors of power.

In that spirit, we wish you — and us all — a happy new year!

Read our director’s, Liv Tørres’, full message on our blog.

2. Halving violence in 2021

(Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald / Shutterstock.com)

If the Movement to Halve Global Violence by 2030 (HGV) were a house, in 2020 Pathfinders labored on its foundation. While bolstering its existing cornerstones — such as the Peace in Our Cities network tackling urban violence and GENSAC, which focuses on gender-responsive small arms control — we worked to form and set the other bricks — institutional, political, financial — needed to set a firm basis for the construction ahead.

These efforts continue into 2021, when we will also summon some of the world’s best ‘architects’ to take the building forward, by forming the Halving Violence Task Force. The Task Force will bring together a small group of thought leaders on violence reduction — ministerial-level government officials as Co-Chairs, civil society organizational leaders, and world-renowned experts — to shape a global debate about how to deliver the HGV commitment. The first Task Force meeting is being planned to take part in late March 2021 as a virtual high-level meeting, when the ‘architects’ will convene to validate and deliver HGV’s strategic blueprint.

We will also assemble the team of ‘builders’ that will assist the architects realize their vision and strategy, by consolidating a group of experienced experts and researchers with key knowledge and openness to innovation, supported by non-governmental organizational partners that can help define, ‘translate to the real world’ and amplify policy prescriptions. From the Pathfinders’ side, we will strive in 2021 to garner the needed building blocks and materials — action-oriented research, political capital, and resources — to allow the HGV ‘house’ to rise and become robust for years to come.

3. Justice for all in 2021