General News

by Phil Vernon, International Alert's Director of Programmes

International Alert is proud to present its new annual report, “Peace Talks”, which looks back at Alert’s work and impact in 2011 – when Alert celebrated its 25th year – using dialogue as a theme.

Despite its 40,000 plus participants and hangers-on, the Rio+20 conference was hardly headline-grabbing. It should have been because it was about saving the natural environment – and the fact that it wasn’t is a reflection not just on media news values, but also on what happened before and during.

From Alert's 2011 Annual Report

From Alert's 2011 Annual Report

"Individuals have to find the courage to say what they fear to say."

From Alert's 2011 Annual Report

"We arrived as Sinhalese and Tamils, but we leave as Sri Lankans".
Participant in diaspora event

From Alert's 2011 Annual Report

This month the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, published its Annual Report for 2011 on the Global Programme on the Rule of Law, a key work strand for the agency. It argues that the way local people see their own governments and the actions of donors is the most important factor in reducing poverty and building peace.

In the more than 50 years since its independence, Sudan has suffered from recurring civil wars causing extensive suffering and devastation. With the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 hopes rose for peaceful co-existence and development. However, since the secession of South Sudan in 2011, the situation can at best be described as non-war. A positive peace seems to be far away.

FRANÇAIS

International Alert is proud to present a new documentary film from our programme in Burundi, in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Our Voices presents the views of Burundian women about what is needed to foster peace and development in the country.

Burundi emerged from more than a decade of civil war in 2005. During the conflict, over 300,000 people lost their lives and more than 1 million Burundians were forced to flee their homes.

International Alert recently launched a briefing paper titled 'Journalism in Transition: Media, Information flows and conflict in Nepal' produced as a part of the EU-funded project Initiative for Peacebuilding - Early Warning (IFP-EW).