Partners in peace: Rotary & the IEP

Rotary and the Institute for Economics and Peace have signed a strategic partnership to roll out the Positive Peace framework.

The partnership has already produced results, including the establishment of the Rotary Positive Peace Academy (rotarypositivepeace.org) and the IEP Ambassador Program. In 2016, before the partnership with Rotary was officially underway, the ambassador program welcomed 135 Rotary Peace Fellows who made 248 presentations about Positive Peace in 51 countries.

Since then, the ambassador program has included some 720 Peace Fellows, Rotarians and Rotaractors. They have presented in 86 countries.

One of the significant initiatives to stem from the partnership is a series of Positive Peace workshops hosted by Rotary clubs and districts around the world (see page 27). The community-based workshops bring together diverse groups of leaders and peacebuilders to discuss the kinds of impactful and measurable investments that can promote Positive Peace locally.

“The power of the Positive Peace framework is that you can implement it in any community project,” says Steve. “You can use it to frame the way you execute any standard developmental project, of which Rotary does many, many tens of thousands around the world every year.

“And the power of that is that you are now looking at projects from a systemic perspective, because the framework is designed to work holistically as a system.

“But, more importantly, just by undertaking an ordinary project – it could be something in the area of water, or education, or health – you are now also implementing concepts of peace. People are learning about peace as they implement the project and the community in which the project is being implemented is also learning about peace.”