The Peace Corner Podcast

In this last episode of season 10, Sofia Biscuola, Co-Director of UNOY, and Peter van Sluijs, Coordinator of the CSPPS and expert on peacebuilding and conflict prevention, join Antonia Rincón Anderson for a conversation about the role of peacebuilding networks and what it means to build collective power in a sector facing profound change.

During the conversation they explored what networks actually bring to the peacebuilding ecosystem, from connecting organizations and practitioners to sharing knowledge, supporting members, and creating opportunities for collective advocacy. Sofia and Peter reflected on the origins of their respective networks, the gaps they were created to address, and how their roles have evolved as the peacebuilding landscape continuous to changed.

The conversation looks closely at advocacy in practice: how networks engage with policymakers and institutions, whose voices they seek to amplify, and how their approaches differ depending on their members, mandates, and contexts.

Finally, Peter and Sofia discuss the growing shift towards regional and locally led peacebuilding. They reflect on the tension between maintaining the benefits of global networks and ensuring that decision-making and ownership are closer to the communities and organizations most affected by conflict.

The Peace Corner Podcast is a collaboration between CSPPS and UNOY Peacebuilders.

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What happens when the religion we practice carries the weight of colonial violence, cutting through our ties to each other, to the land, and to our responsibility for one another?

In this episode, Eline, a theology student, pastor-to-be, and community organiser for Christian spaces in the Netherlands, reflects on what it means to practice peacebuilding close to home, rather than somewhere else. She speaks to a shift many young peacebuilders recognise, from once imagining the work as something done abroad, to realising it belongs with her own people, in the Netherlands.

Drawing on her own reading of sacred texts as radical, activist works, Eline unpacks the difference between theology, what needs to change, and spirituality, what religion still has to offer. She reflects on what it looks like, on a daily basis, to hold a decolonial lens inside a tradition that hasn't caught up yet.

At a time when polarisation is pulling people further apart and misinformation is spreading, how do we learn to think critically, listen to one another, and imagine different ways of living together?

We are joined in this episode by Andrés Morales, humanitarian, peacebuilder, and a strong advocate of youth engagement. Drawing on his own experience as a Scout, his research on peace education, and his work with young people and volunteers around the world, he reflects on why peace is not only built through formal processes or institutions, but through the everyday experiences that shape how we relate to one another.

Our conversation explores non-formal education as a powerful, yet often overlooked, tool for peacebuilding. Through learning by doing, creating spaces for dialogue and connection, and empowering young people to take action through responsibility, non-formal education can help nurture the skills, relationships, and mindsets that peace is built on. We discuss why non-formal education is increasingly relevant today, how it builds critical thinking skills, whether it can be seen as a form of resistance, and how everyone can practice “learning peace” in our everyday lives.

The Peace Corner Podcast is a collaboration between UNOY Peacebuilders and CSPPS.

How can we recognise the resilience of peacebuilders without romanticising the conditions they are forced to survive?

In Episode 6 of 'Peace Under Pressure', our host Fama speaks with Ufra Mir, peace- psychologist and Founding Executive Director of the International Center for Peace Psychology, about rethinking care, wellbeing and resilience in peacebuilding.

Ufra explores why wellbeing cannot be understood only as an individual issue, but must also account for the political, social and cultural conditions shaping people’s lives. She discusses the risks of placing the responsibility for resilience on those living through oppression and ongoing trauma, and asks us to consider the systems and institutions surrounding them.

Drawing on her work in Kashmir, South Asia, Majority World and globally, Ufra also reflects on what decolonising wellbeing can look like in practice, including recognising community-based forms of care, culture, spirituality and creative expression. The conversation also highlights the need for stronger protection mechanisms, resources, recognition and structured wellbeing support for young peacebuilders and activists.

The Peace Corner Podcast is a podcast by the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS) and the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY).

In a time where states are involved in almost 3/4 of all violent events, how and where can civil society peacebuilders make an impact?

In this episode, Liz Hume, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, discusses the rise in state-led violence, including the US–Iran conflict, and its indirect impacts for fragile contexts across the world. She recommends for countries in the Global North to ‘practise what they preach’ on peacebuilding and conflict prevention and to implement these principles, not only in their development cooperation funding, but in their own domestic and foreign policies.

Liz talks about how civil society can build peace from the ground up, starting with the community level, citing key lessons from contexts such as the US, Senegal, Hungary, Zimbabwe and Kosovo. She stresses the importance of resilience, optimism, and engaging with tools such as the private sector and the rule of law. In particular, Liz highlights the key role of the public in demanding more from their political leaders. She also speaks of the need for the United Nations and other international institutions to play a more active role in preventing and reducing conflict.

The Peace Corner Podcast is a collaboration between UNOY Peacebuilders and CSPPS.

Still in the spirit of Pride Month last June, in this episode 4 of Season 10, Reemar Alonsagay (they/he), an activist-scholar in Mindanao, discusses the importance of queering the Youth, Peace, and Security agenda at the local level.

Reemar reflects on how queer peacebuilders in Mindanao participate in local peacebuilding activities, despite growing hate crimes, killings, and intimidations. Through organising pride marches, short stories exhibitions, and art & advocacy workshops, queer peacebuilders in Mindanao demonstrated not only how conflict/war affects them but also how they are also an active agent in local peacebuilding.

Queer peacebuilders resist and remain resilient amidst anti-gender movement, securitisation, and budget cuts have pushed queer peacebuilders to the margin at the global peacebuilding agenda, which is often still very gender-binary and heteronormative. Unfortunately, this is being felt at the grassroot level as well.

Trigger Warning: This episode discusses graphic violence and persecution targeting LGBTQ+ people. Please listen with care ❤️🫂

The Peace Corner Podcast is a collaboration between UNOY Peacebuilders and CSPPS.

In this episode of the Peace Corner Podcast, former U.S. Navy Captain and Foreign Area Officer Bill Miller joins Michaela to explore how peacebuilders and defence institutions can work together to build more sustainable and effective approaches to peace.

Drawing on more than three decades of military service, Bill reflects on how his understanding of peace evolved from the cockpit to the embassy, highlighting the importance of diplomacy, trust, and international cooperation alongside military capabilities. Together, they discuss the role of security cooperation, the value of understanding institutional systems, and the often-overlooked mechanisms through which defence institutions contribute to conflict prevention, human rights, and peacebuilding.

The conversation also explores the practical realities of working in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, the challenges of balancing security with human rights, and why long-term relationships, cultural understanding, and patience are essential to building lasting peace. Bill concludes by sharing advice for the next generation of peacebuilders, encouraging them to become practitioners, understand the systems they seek to influence, and recognise that meaningful peace is built through cooperation and trust.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this episode are those of the guest and are shared in a personal capacity. They do not represent the official positions of any government institution or organisation.

The Peace Corner Podcast is a collaboration between UNOY Peacebuilders and CSPPS.

In this second episode of Peace Under Pressure, Dylan Mathews, Chief Executive Officer of Peace Direct, speaks with Isabela Marcon Ciceri about one of the most pressing challenges facing the peacebuilding sector today: how peacebuilders raise money in an era of shrinking aid budgets and shifting political priorities.

Drawing on his experience leading a global organisation dedicated to locally led peacebuilding, Dylan argues that the sector is facing more than a funding crisis. He reflects on what he describes as a growing delegitimisation of peacebuilding itself, where belief in peace as a political and social project has increasingly fallen off the international agenda. The conversation explores the impact of donor cuts, the tensions between defence spending and peacebuilding investments, and the difficult choices organisations are being forced to make in an increasingly constrained funding environment.

Dylan also shares practical insights on how local peacebuilders can navigate changing donor priorities, strengthen sustainable funding models, and advocate more effectively for the value of peacebuilding. Throughout the discussion, he highlights the importance of locally led approaches and the need to rethink how the international community supports those working to build peace on the ground.

All of this takes place against the backdrop of growing global insecurity, increasing militarisation, and mounting pressure on civil society organisations working to prevent conflict and sustain peace.

The Peace Corner Podcast is a collaboration between CSPPS and UNOY Peacebuilders.

In this opening episode of Season 10, Vera Al Mawla, President and Co-Founder of Peace of Art Intl. and former MENA Regional Coordinator with UNOY Peacebuilders, speaks with Martina Migliorisi about what peacebuilding really looks like on the ground in Lebanon and across the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region.

From building a grassroots organisation from scratch to continuing that work through the 2024 war and Israeli aggressions on Lebanon, Vera speaks with rare honesty and depth about what this work actually demands.

She reflects on the difference between peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding; the role of art as a tool for dialogue and community resilience; why young people are not the present of peacebuilding; the psychological toll of living and working in permanent crisis and what it does to an entire generation's sense of reality; the contradictions at the heart of international systems that document atrocities in real time and yet consistently fail to act; and the reality of protection for local peacebuilders who are largely left to rely on each other, on local knowledge, and sometimes on luck.

All of this against the backdrop of the threats the field faces today: shrinking funding, collapsing civic spaces, militarisation, and the failure of international systems to protect the people they claim to serve.

The Peace Corner Podcast is a collaboration between UNOY and CSPPS.

In this 10th - and last - episode of the Peace Corner Podcast season 9, our host Eugénie Hirsch, intern at CSPPS, discusses with Gina McIntyre, chief executive of the Special EU Programmes Body. Together, they explore the question of peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, and the effects the peace programmes have on young people.

Drawing from her experience, Gina offers her insights on different issues such as mental health, trauma and healing but also on management of the peace fund and the necessity of youth involvement in the peace programmes.

This episode dives into the question of resolution 2250, whether it has had an impact for the people working in the field, and what could be concrete ways to improve the way forward.

Highlighting the vital role of youth in peace processes, this episode sheds light on the reality of peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, and the difficulties the population is still facing.

Don’t miss out on this insightful conversation, tune in now!

The 9th season of the Peace Corner Podcast is an initiative of CSPPS & UNOY Peacebuilders.