UK

With cuts to local services, fewer resources for supporting local communities and rising unemployment, especially among the young, many people fear tensions among communities will get worse in England.

It is important that those of us who promote good relations among communities tell local and national decision-makers what works in reducing these tensions.

With cuts to local services, fewer resources for supporting local communities and rising unemployment, especially among the young, many people fear tensions among communities will get worse in England.

It is important that those of us who promote good relations among communities tell local and national decision-makers what works in reducing these tensions.

Talk for a Change and International Alert, with funding from Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Oxfam, want to help run workshops across England for practitioners to discuss:

International Alert is calling for greater engagement between the UK government and diasporas, in order to improve peace and development.

The report aims to deepen understanding of diaspora communities in the UK and to improve partnerships between the diaspora and policymakers on peacebuilding and development policy and practice. It explores how the experience of diasporas in the UK is affected by conflict in their countries of origin, the nature of their continuing connections with these countries, and their perceptions and mobilisation around international engagement on development and peacebuilding processes.

Full report

Executive summary

‘We should go and see David Cameron about this!’, was the conclusion of the Lancashire youth group taking part in our project, “Promoting Positive Voices in Diaspora Communities”.

In November, International Alert organised a visit of four doctors from the British Sri Lankan diaspora community to Sri Lanka, to learn about the country’s healthcare challenges.

In October, our partner organisation Voices for Reconciliation brought together people from Sri Lanka’s diaspora communities to talk about how their personal identities influence their opinions and understanding of Sri Lanka’s history, and how such identities are shaping the country’s post-war future.

On 28th September, one of our partner organisations Voices for Reconciliation (VFR) took part in a workshop with young people from Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan diaspora community in the UK.

‘Now I see it differently’, said one of the participants on our four-day course on conflict analysis and conflict sensitivity in Birmingham, UK last month.

The event, designed to train and prepare civilians for crisis management missions worldwide, brought together members of EU, UN and OSCE missions in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kosovo and elsewhere.

Through a participatory afternoon we will share experiences and approaches to working with young people on issues of conflict both in the UK and abroad. Contributors include the British Red Cross, Marsden Heights Community College, Refugee Youth, International Alert and Y Care International.

For more information and to download a booking form, see the attachments below.

A group of emerging political leaders from Sri Lanka’s Parliament and civil society have been spending the week here in the UK as part of a programme aimed at fostering reconciliation in that country’s progress toward peaceful development following the end of the three decade civil war there in 2009.

This summer, two amazing fundraisers (Will Gibbs and Thomas Samuel) took on the challenge of sailing around Britain, and raised some much needed money for International Alert. We managed to catch up with Will to find out how it went…

1. How does it feel now that you have completed your sail around Britain?

The usual August calm was shattered by the disturbances across England two weeks ago. Whilst the debris is now cleared from the streets, the boarded-up shop windows and fire-blackened facades remain, reminding us of the harder process of rebuilding both physically and socially that needs to follow.  

This month, rioting and looting gripped England. At a time of uncertainty, it seemed salient (and perhaps inevitable) to ask, if the UK were a fragile state, how would we approach the events of last week, their aftermath and the future?

Building stability overseas