24 individuals from 17 countries have been nominated for our Peacemakers in Action and Women’s Peace Initiative awards. During the last 9 weeks, staff have reviewed, researched, collated, charted, researched again and ranked according to our five criteria. As of Friday, it will be up to our expert selection committee…
It’s been a great run. I’m happy to report that our outreach eastward was helpful -we’ve learned for the first time about creative and effective peacemakers in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Bhutan. Less women have been nominated than last year (8 as opposed to 13), so bringing that number back up – and higher – is on the agenda for next time.
The behind the scenes work will continue, and you’ll hear from us again around April. We can’t wait to share the winner (and perhaps the top ten?) with you. Thank you to all who have helped us to uncover the conflict resolution and peacebuilding “light” of relatively unknown “stars.” With your participation, we’ll continue to increase the gender, religious and geographical diversity of the Peacemakers in Action – and inspire more religious peacemaking in more and more corners of the globe!
p.s. Special thanks to Religion and Conflict Resolution team members who have been with us at some point or throughout this long, thrilling process: Jenny Catherall, Szonja Ludvig, Tanya Ghaziani, Laura Fedoryk, Matt Lucas and Nick Jaeger.