2021 was a productive year of transformation and advancement, and in preparation to scale our economic stabilization work in Somalia, Colombia, and other conflict-affected regions around the world, we’ve been paying close attention to our internal systems and policies to ensure we can scale sustainably without compromising on the quality of outcomes we are able to deliver for our stakeholders.
We believe that inclusive governance and economic stabilization are key to peace, and we made great strides in advancing both in 2021. We influenced policy and practice in both branches of the US government and in 20 other nations to ensure that gender perspectives are included in peace and security decision-making. We trained peacemakers from 58 organizations working across 38 conflicts on ways to overcome seemingly impossible challenges by swarming leaders with attractive alternatives to organized political violence. And we demonstrated to governments and international organizations around the world that open-source data can form the basis for inclusion and dialogue that can reduce the risk of sleepwalking into war. More perspectives can help reduce political tensions, avoid unforced errors and unintended consequences, and provide a social container in which peace can flourish.