Opinions & Insights

In the heart of the Bulahar fishing community, a transformation was underway, fueled by the determination of individuals like Khalid Hassan. Khalid's journey from a community member to a skilled mechanic unfolded, marking a turning point for his community and their relationship with the sea.

Leveraging the power of collective sensemaking can amplify the impact of learning efforts and help organizations practice adaptive management more effectively. This, in turn, enables organizations to proactively manage risks and seize emerging opportunities for scaling impact.

Throughout OEF’s journey, we have learned a few organizational heuristics that are key for embracing the characteristics of complexity while maintaining operational effectiveness and maximizing the opportunity for impact. We believe that one of the core competencies organizations can leverage in suc...

Our core organizational strategy and values require us to take seriously the idea that our goal is to catalyze systems that are sustainable, that are scalable and—most importantly—that actually address problems underlying conflict. So we’ve developed a theory of incubation, based on iteration and sc...

In 2015, negotiations were in full swing during the Colombian peace process. The negotiators were discussing one of the most complex issues: the delicate question of transitional justice and who would be held accountable for the thousands of war crimes. After a complete deadlock, President Juan Manu...

Our column this month by OEF Executive Director Jon Bellish focuses on how we are innovating through this reality with two peacemaking and negotiation programs that aim to transform seemingly impossible conflicts through teamwork, creativity, relationship-building, and the use of open-source data to...

Secure Fisheries Project Manager Jamal Hassan visited the Kismayo area of Somalia in December 2021 to discuss the potential for cooperative management with communities and government officials.

Economic opportunity in the face of conflict has been at the center of several of One Earth Future’s initiatives for peace since the organization was established more than a decade ago those that are most ripe for scaled impact this year through partnership.

As we discussed the devastation with President Biden, Governor Polis, and our US Senators and Congressmen last week and contemplate daily the eerie vacuum of space where our homes once stood in Superior, Colorado, I wonder whether humanity can heed the warning calls of climate change.

As we work to create a sustainable planet, we must equally prioritize sustainable peace. Our work in Somali fishing communities has shed light on ways science and natural resource conservation come together to reduce conflict and build community and environmental resilience. 

The recent presence of military coups covered in the news may lead people to believe that coups are more prevalent in 2021 than they have been in recent years, however, this perception may warrant further questions pertaining to what qualifies an event as a coup, and how loosely should the term be u...

Secure Fisheries Project Kalluun, a partnership with four Somali universities and Somali fisheries ministries, aims to enhance fisheries data collection throughout the region and train the next generation of Somali marine scientists. As participants in the project, students gain training from Secure...

The recent presence of military coups covered in the news may lead people to believe that coups are more prevalent in 2021 than they have been in recent years, however, this perception may warrant further questions pertaining to what qualifies an event as a coup, and how loosely should the term be u...

The world is complex enough when everyone is operating with the same set of underlying facts on any given topic. When those facts are hidden or manipulated, overcoming intractable conflict becomes nearly impossible. Sharing open source data among adversarial governments, within governments, and betw...

June is Pride Month and in the U.S. we also commemorate “Juneteenth” on June 19th, the marking of the end of slavery in the U.S. Already widely recognized, we applaud the U.S. House of Reps for recently voting overwhelmingly to formalize Juneteenth as a national federal holiday. OEF wants to extend ...