Solidarity – with our partners and with communities we are aiming to serve – is more important than ever, and we have a deeply rooted sense of collectiveness and standing together. Solidarity can take different forms depending on the context and on what our partners or the networks we engage with need. This can be resources to do their valuable work, accompaniment, or supporting them behind closed doors to push for change. Or it can mean using our collective voice to stand up for those who are being silenced.
We continue to be inspired by the incredible work that our partners carry out in very difficult contexts, working towards peace. This ranges from community initiatives leading the emergency response to the crisis in Sudan, partners in Somalia pushing for effective policy responses to gender-based violence against women activists and journalists who work to prevent or reduce conflict, or partners in Kyrgyzstan facilitating mental health support groups for young people to build a base for lasting peace in their communities. We also strengthened our partnership approach to working in solidarity with civil society organisations, community groups, and networks and platforms.
We continue to advocate for the importance of providing core, flexible and accessible funding that enables organisations to decide their own priorities and be responsive to the needs of the people they work with. We provided flexible funding to women’s rights organisations in Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria through our Resourcing Change project; provided grants to Yemeni civil society organisations – selected through a transparent peer review process – to enhance their role as peacebuilders; and supported 320 community initiatives in South Sudan with micro-grants and training.
Our policy work continued this year, despite the breakdown of multilateralism, processes and institutions to sustain peace. Our work ranged from influencing the language and content of a number of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolutions, including the eighth Review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, to working with the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies to inform our advocacy towards the UK Government on its air strikes in Yemen. Following the outbreak of war in Sudan, Saferworld USA facilitated the participation of Sudanese civil society partners in various international platforms to amplify their voices and perspectives on conflict transformation and advocate for peace in Sudan.
The climate crisis continued to have wide-reaching effects on lives and livelihoods around the globe. Saferworld has been advocating for applying a peace and justice lens to climate action and throughout the year we highlighted the importance of conflict sensitivity in climate adaptation. We are increasingly looking at integrating environment and climate considerations into arms, security and gender policy. This year we published our first major piece of research on climate change, looking at how climate change and conflict in three of Kenya’s northern counties interact with natural resource management systems and peace infrastructure.
2024 marked a change in leadership at Saferworld, as I took on the role of Chief Executive Officer after Paul Murphy, Saferworld’s Executive Director for 12 years, stepped down. Having previously served as Director of International Programmes at Saferworld, I am excited to return and I feel an enormous privilege to lead this organisation and to work with all our inspirational staff and partners. I want to express my gratitude and appreciation for Paul: his passion and leadership made an immense contribution to Saferworld and he left the organisation with a clear strategy that is not only peoplecentred, but which places solidarity at its heart. I also want to express my sincere gratitude for our funding partners and donors, who help make all of this work happen.
Susana Klien, Chief Executive Officer
A message from the Chair of the Board Stephanie Blair
As we look back on yet another year marked by an escalation of violent conflict, we take heart in the dedication of our staff, the strength of our partnerships and the fundamental value – often under-recognised –of the work that we do.
The period covered by this annual review, April 2023 to March 2024, laid bare the cracks – already evident to those bearing the brunt of wars – in the rules-based international order. With no end in sight to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a grim resurgence in conflict in the Middle East, there is seemingly little hope for those working towards peace.
And yet, even as nations have mobilised their military resources towards these conflict flashpoints, voices for peace have also gained in prominence. As millions protested Israel’s disproportionate actions against the citizens of Gaza, the spotlight landed on the arms trade, and the billions of dollars’ worth of arms exported to Israel every year. We have been a leading voice in advocating for a responsible arms trade since Saferworld’s foundation, and the current conflict in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories has highlighted the value of our advocacy.
Equally, our work on forgotten conflicts has been brought into the light by the eruption of civil war in Sudan in April 2024. Sudan is a context in which we have worked for many years, building strong relationships and forging partnerships which haven proven crucial in this newest phase of insecurity. Saferworld responded with agility when the crisis began, moving to protect our staff and our partners, and providing support to emergency response rooms and civil society organisations as they strive to create islands of safety amid the conflict.
WE WORKED WITH 83 PARTNERS
49 OF WHICH ARE WOMEN-LED
WE DIRECTLY REACHED
15,825 PEOPLE
THROUGH TRAINING AND CAPACITYBUILDING WORKSHOPS, MENTORING, ROUNDTABLES, POLICY DISCUSSIONS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
WE SUPPORTED 904 COMMUNITY & CIVIL SOCIETYLED INITIATIVES THROUGH TRAINING, MENTORING AND ACCOMPANIMENT TO PROMOTE PEACE AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE AT THE LOCAL, SUBNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LEVELS
Highlights
Saferworld and partners’ peacebuilding achievements included:
n resolving climate-related and resource-based conflicts between pastoralists and cattle herders across county boundaries in Kenya, through inclusive peace dialogues
n the appointment of two women as chiefs of the customary court panel in Bor South County, South Sudan, overcoming the longstanding Dinka customary law that prohibited women from holding leadership positions
n the first peaceful resolution between the Aysha and Felata tribes in South Darfur, Sudan, following successful dialogue and reconciliation efforts by youth peace ambassadors, including the organisation of public meetings and sports events to foster trust and cooperation between the communities
n better access for women to security services in Yemen, through community policing approaches that bring communities, local authorities and civil society together to improve infrastructure
n the creation of an ad hoc committee in Baidoa, Somalia, to disseminate the Civilian Oversight Model/ Mechanism of security forces, following work by Saferworld and partners to improve civilian oversight of security forces and community understanding of policy-making processes
n the inclusion of more prominent conflict sensitivity messaging in the Declaration on Peace, Relief and Recovery presented at global climate conference COP28, following our advocacy efforts to apply a peace and justice lens to climate action
n the inclusion of technical questions on arms exports to Israel during the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Working Group on Effective Treaty Implementation, which drew directly on our support to the State of Palestine’s Geneva-based representatives
n gaining the backing of the Mayor of Razzakov, Kyrgyzstan, in sustaining mental health self-support group meetings established as part of our mental health and psychosocial support project
n the establishment of a dedicated unit for electronic blackmail (cybersecurity) crimes by the AttorneyGeneral’s office in Aden, Yemen, which launched an online user-friendly platform for reporting and managing electronic crimes and provided capacitybuilding training for judges
n the award of the prestigious Medal for Cooperation to Saferworld project staff in Kyrgyzstan for their 15 years of contributions to community-police partnerships
n influencing the language and content of a number of United Nations (UN) Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions, including the eighth Review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, UN Security Council Resolution 2686 on Human Fraternity, and UN Security Council Resolution 2719 on peacekeeping
n the use of micro grants in Kyrgyzstan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen to build connections among community groups, which has strengthened local decision-making and locally led responses to crises, empowered women’s hubs to challenge harmful gender norms, and increased trust in divided communities
n our conflict sensitivity facilities successfully influencing a range of aid actors to integrate conflict sensitivity into their strategies, policies, programmes and practice – including the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs providing conflict sensitivity focal points for partners to the Sudan Humanitarian Fund
n our Pragmatism and prevention briefing serving as a key resource for engaging political parties as they developed their manifestos ahead of the UK general election
Somalia
Our Somalia programme works on community security, enhancing people’s participation in peacebuilding processes and improving governance.
2023–24 saw the continuation of our Violence Observatory System project, which equips women activists with the tools to respond to threats to their safety, including online and physical abuse. During this period, Saferworld and our partners Somali Women Studies Centre and Somali Women Development Centre supported women activists to be part of decision-making spaces and reassert their role in peacebuilding. This led to women activists getting government support to condemn and prevent violence against women and support inclusive political and decision-making processes.
As a development of the Violence Observatory System, Saferworld, Somali Women Development Centre and Bay Women Network Association established the ‘Early Warning, Early Response’ system, which identifies and analyses data on emerging conflict dynamics and violence specifically affecting women, young people and marginalised groups, including internally displaced people and people with disabilities.
We have worked towards improving security and justice for Somalis, bringing together a diverse array of community members, Islamic scholars, and representatives from local government and law enforcement to discuss ways forward for peace.
Our peacebuilding project in the contested Sool region supported a television drama about the impact of revenge killings on community safety, on a channel watched by an estimated 400,000 people. This formed part of our ongoing efforts to foster inter-clan reconciliation and dispute resolution mechanisms among the pastoralists living there, which also involved training peace ambassadors to act as agents of change in their communities.
In South Sudan we continued our conflict cluster approach, working across administrative boundaries to bring communities together to build peace. Alongside our partners Women Initiative for Development Organisation (WIDO) and Women Development Group (WDG), in June 2023 we organised an inter-state roundtable bringing peacebuilding organisations, traditional leaders and community representatives together in Tonj. The event gave participants the chance to raise their concerns and priorities and led to improved relations between people in Tonj East in Warrap State and Rumbek North in Lakes State.
Our briefings on peacebuilding in the Wunlit Triangle, the area where Lakes, Unity and Warrap States meet, served as a catalyst for civil society organisations to advocate on behalf of their communities. Equipped with the evidencebased arguments from the briefings, the civil society organisations pressed county governments to prioritise and respond to the needs, concerns and aspirations of their citizens.
Also using data from the briefings, Saferworld and WIDO successfully advocated to state governments for the increased presence of police along the border between Cuiebet County in Lakes State and Tonj South in Warrap State. This led to a fall in cattle raiding and the cycle of killings and revenge killings that so often follows.
As part of our project challenging harmful gender norms, we used our briefing as part of an awareness-raising campaign on the rights of women and girls in the Wunlit Triangle, continuing work which has seen a significant decrease in early and forced marriages, and other forms of gender-based violence. And in both Warrap and Eastern Equatoria States, Saferworld and partners WDG in Warrap and Root of Generations in Eastern Equatoria successfully advocated for the inclusion of women in customary courts, improving women’s access to justice.
Sudan
In Sudan, Saferworld supports Sudanese civil society partners to participate in international platforms to amplify their voices and advocate for peace. This year, this included establishing connections between ten Sudanese English-speaking activists and civil society members with media platforms and agencies, including The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Economist and Al Jazeera. We also facilitated meetings between Sudanese civil society partners and US government officials to provide insights into the ongoing conflict and discuss opportunities for peacebuilding. In response to the deteriorating situation in Darfur, Saferworld also organised a civil society briefing for diplomats to shed light on the crisis and seek support from the international community.
With partners we hosted an event, ‘Sudanese women: Another chapter of resilience and resistance’ as part of the 68th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Four Sudanese women activists shared their analysis of the current situation and talked about the work that they and other women’s rights organisations are doing to advance women’s rights and gender equality in Sudan. Their insights and recommendations are featured in a briefing.
Conflict has hindered the provision of international aid. However, we were able to support 320 initiatives in Eastern Sudan, Darfur, and West Kordofan, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states with micro grants and training. These included nine initiatives in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states that promote women’s participation in peacebuilding, address gender-based violence, advance democratic transformation, and advance the youth common agenda. In Eastern Sudan we provided micro grants, mentoring, and training on finance, report writing and safeguarding for 33 initiatives, as well as financial support for emergency rooms to assist internally displaced people. We also provided small grants to 29 civil society organisations across the country, to implement peacebuilding and conflict resolution responses and support humanitarian aid delivery.
“THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO RAIN, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT”: PERSPECTIVES ON CLIMATE CHANGE
AND CONFLICT IN UGANDA AND KENYA
The effects of climate change – particularly drought – are contributing to conflict across Uganda and Kenya, as people compete for scarce resources such as crops, water and pasture. Increased levels of gender-based violence, disease, conflicts over land and rising migration have also been linked to the climate crisis.
With gaps in climate change policies and legislation, organisations are finding unique ways to adapt and to address communities’ needs with practical solutions. One of these is the IMARA partnership programme in Kenya, where we are working with consortium and civil society partners to increase the resilience of vulnerable households to climate change-related shocks through diversified livelihoods and improved natural resource management and use.
We talked to David, Mohammed, Leonard, Geoffrey and Tebanyang from four of the organisations we partner with in Kenya and Uganda to find out how climate change is impacting the people they work with, and how they are adapting to build peace.
David Kangole and Mohammed Yusuf, Turkana Pastoralists Development Organization (an IMARA partner), Kenya
How has climate change affected people in Turkana? Has this increased conflict?
People face numerous challenges ranging from drought, food shortages at home, animal diseases, human health issues like malnutrition in children, scarcity of water in some areas (especially pastoral regions), and insecurity within county and national boundaries. Climate change has affected pastoral community households’ nutritional status, leading to increased acute malnutrition. It has also led to communities relying on less preferred food intake and skipping meals as a way of survival.
Conflicts have also intensified along border areas because of these climate changes – there is competition for access to water and pasture across county and community borders as a result of shortages. Host communities are resistant to allow pastoralists from Turkana to occupy their lands and use their forage crops and water. During a project in Kalopetase village in Turkana North, people stated that, because of climate change, they were forced to migrate towards Uganda to look for pasture and water. When reaching Urum, on the border of Uganda and Kenya, they faced a serious attack from host communities; all their livestock were taken away and they also lost some of their relatives to the incident.
Leonard Kamsait, Chief Officer for Water, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, Pokot Youth Bunge County Forum (an IMARA partner), Kenya
How has climate change affected the people you work with?
Harsh climatic conditions have resulted in massive movement and migration of people and livestock from Kenya into Uganda in search of water, pasture and food. In the process, daily sources of livelihoods are affected, and conflicts increase due to pressure on resources in the new areas. Learning in schools is affected (schools may be closed because of conflict, or children leave school when their families migrate). Due to destructive human activities such as deforestation and poor farming practices that leave the ground bare without any cover, the highlands of West Pokot (Lelan, Tapach, Batei and Sekerr) frequently experience landslides, leading to massive displacement of people, destruction of property and even deaths.
Are you working on ways to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change?
Yes, we are sensitising members of the community to start growing fast-growing crops that are drought resistant, and practice small irrigation farming along the riverbanks and
existing dams. We also: encourage community groups to set aside pasture farms and store the harvest for usage during drought season, support community action groups to identify priority needs in key sectors (water and pasture), and lobby for funding and implementation by relevant government authorities/departments. We are also encouraging farmers to embrace crossbreeding of livestock to have livestock that are resistant to drought and diseases.
Geoffrey Odong, Project Coordinator, Gulu Women Economic Development and Globalisation, Uganda
How has climate change affected your community?
Climate change has led to serious land conflicts. In Balalo in Northern Uganda, pastoralist communities cross from South Sudan to Uganda to raid cattle in Lamwo district. This creates violent cross-border conflicts between landowners and pastoralist communities. Dangerous weapons like small arms, spears, bows and arrows are sometimes used against animals and people.
Climate change has also increased vulnerability levels among people experiencing poverty and other marginalised communities. For instance, people whose homes have been destroyed by floods often become very vulnerable. People can resort to sex work to survive (which is criminalised in Uganda) – this can expose young girls and women to gender-based violence including economic violence, intimate partner violence and physical abuse. Cases of gender-based violence have also increased in households; especially physical and economic violence (when a spouse denies his or her partner access to, control and ownership of productive resources like money, assets, land and other resources). This is because in the Acholi traditional setting, a man is supposed to provide for his family but when he fails in his duties, like providing food and healthcare, the likelihood of conflict increases.
How is your organisation adapting to the effects of climate change?
We are supporting organised groups such as village savings and loan association groups – as well as religious and cultural leaders – in Acholi sub-region by providing tree seedlings such as teak, pine and eucalyptus tree seedlings. We then link people to government agricultural extension services for technical support. We’re also helping community groups with traditional or organic food crops that are resistant to drought, pest and diseases. We’re carrying out community sensitisation and awareness campaigns on climate change and disaster risk reduction, and we’re partnering with organisations involved in climate change-related work.
Tebanyang Emmanuel Arukol, Policy Analyst, Karamoja Development Forum, Uganda
How has climate change affected the people you work with?
Climate variabilities have exposed pastoralists and agropastoralists to livelihood losses such as crop failure and livestock losses and therefore hunger, leading to the loss of lives. It has led to unpredictable migration, especially of pastoralists from Turkana, Kenya, into Uganda, and by Karimojong pastoralists into other regions and districts of Uganda such as Acholi, Lango, Teso and Sebei. This has created conflicts due to rivalry over access and use of natural resources including water and pasture.
How are you working to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change?
We continue to form and strengthen local community groups that will protect land and share information between each other. This information is related to livestock diseases, livestock market prices and climate information. We’ve also distributed mobile phones for information sharing. We have worked with partners to advocate for resilience programming such as land rights protection, securing grazing areas and corridors, and the development of infrastructure such as valley tanks and dams.
We’d like to see increased sharing of (understandable) climate information, more resilience programming, and documentation of traditional practices that enhance adaptation to climate change and the sharing of the same. We need to strengthen adaption mechanisms (adjusting to current and future climate change effects), not just mitigation (making the impacts of climate change less severe by reducing emissions).
Christo Musinguzi
Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan
Saferworld continued its work supporting community policing in Kyrgyzstan. This is a vital component of peacebuilding work around the world, and one which we have pioneered in the country In 2023–24 we established four new local crime prevention centres, bringing the total to 49 that we have supported. These centres bring community members and police officers together to address community-identified priorities. To support, enhance and promote the work of these centres, we organised (with the Ministry of the Interior) a festival for youth, funded outreach campaigns conducted by juvenile police inspectors, and facilitated a study tour to Vienna for centre members, police and representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Taking advantage of the positive relationship we have built with police departments, we delivered training on conflict and gender sensitivity.
In 2023, we also wrapped up a project focusing on young people’s mental health in Kyrgyzstan. Following the creation of youth self-support groups and a range of youth-led public campaigns, we convened meetings of a mental health working group and held a final conference bringing together project participants and government decision makers.
Uzbekistan
In Uzbekistan, as part of a project on peace and gender equality in the country, Saferworld and partners Istiqlol Avlodi and Dialog conducted a needs assessment of women’s shelters and rehabilitation centres, identifying the challenges they face and making recommendations to regional and national authorities about how they could improve service delivery for survivors of gender-based violence. As a result, the Government of Uzbekistan is increasing the amount of time that women can stay in rehabilitation centres from three to six months.
Partners Istiqlol Avlodi, Dialog and Saferworld brought together staff from rehabilitation centres and shelters together with civil society groups, police and government officials to conduct trainings on a range of topics meant to improve service delivery, such as on gender-sensitive case response, legislation and guidance on responding to gender-based violence, forming partnerships with local institutions, and communications and awareness raising of available services.
In Yemen, Saferworld continued to provide varied and increasingly flexible support to CSOs and coalitions, to enable them to meet their core needs and strengthen their organisational and technical skills. Many of these organisations are operating in extremely challenging circumstances and Saferworld has been accompanying them in carrying out peacebuilding activities within very restricted civic space.
With our partners National Organisation for Community Development and Youth Without Borders Organization for Development, we provided micro grants to enable eight community groups to implement social accountability initiatives. These projects included improving women detainees’ access to legal and psychological support, strengthening local security provision (including security services for women), improving transportation links, repairing water distribution and sewage systems, addressing drug addiction, raising awareness of mines, and reducing crime rates through installing CCTV cameras. The use of micro grants allowed the teams to work with a wide range of community-based groups, rather than larger and more established CSOs. Community groups themselves were responsible for identifying the issues, designing the solutions and implementing the initiatives.
Saferworld continued to support CSO and women-led hubs in Taiz and Aden. We provide small grants to the hubs, as well as training, and facilitate learning between them. The CSO hubs work to enhance community security and peace, while the women’s hubs enable women to exchange resources and information and work together to influence peace processes and decision-making. For example, the women’s hub in Taiz implemented a social media campaign to raise awareness of the lack of designated spaces, including restrooms, for women working in government facilities in Yemen. This campaign garnered public support and pressured government authorities to provide gender-sensitive infrastructure and policies that cater to the needs of both women employees and women visitors to these facilities. The overall goal is to create an enabling environment that encourages women’s participation in the public sector and promotes gender equality in government institutions. Because of this project, the Attorney General’s Office also established a dedicated unit within the Public Prosecution Office equipped with trained staff and a user-friendly platform for victim reporting and case management.
CASE STUDY
TOWARDS SOLIDARITY: INTRODUCING THE YEMEN CIVIL SOCIETY SOLIDARITY FUND
What does it look like to fund based on the values of transparency, flexibility and solidarity? In 2019 we co-launched the Yemen Civil Society Solidarity Fund with Yemeni civil society to find out if new, transformative models of funding are possible. The fund provides grants of up to USD$45,000 and has so far supported 18 organisations, selected through a peer review process. Adel, Mathar, Akram Al-Hussein, Youssef and Adel from five of these organisations discuss their experiences of the fund.
Adel Abdullah Qaed Dahan, Executive Director, Basmat Hayat for People with Disabilities
Our vision is the comprehensive integration of people with disabilities into society. Our staff and management are all individuals with disabilities. Through the Yemen Civil Society Solidarity Fund, we delivered ten interventions to enhance the role of people with disabilities in peacebuilding and good governance. We’d never received funding that was this flexible before –many doors opened for us.
Our organisation gained good recognition and received excellent feedback from our audience and from people with disabilities. Also, the team’s financial and admin performance improved. The training we received strengthened our team’s skills in proposal writing, budgeting and financial reconciliation, and our understanding of good governance.
Donors could improve funding to Yemeni civil society by giving us the opportunity to assess needs and by giving us flexible funding that allows us to meet the community’s needs as well as our own. Donors can help strengthen our skills and support us until we become self-reliant and capable of raising funds. There are small civil society organisations that possess untapped
potential and significant capabilities in conducting needs assessments and doing fieldwork. However, these organisations don’t have access to donors because of their weak organisational criteria. We need donors to collaborate with us, provide flexible multi-year funding, and create opportunities for us to meet with them.
Al-Hussein Ali Solan, Executive Director of Musaala for Human Rights, and Youssef Hazeb, Director of the National Organisation of Yemeni Reporters (Sada) (the organisations co-applied to the fund for one grant)
At Musaala and Sada our desire is to see a democratic, free and safe Yemeni society that respects human rights and basic freedoms. We took part in the Yemen Civil Society Solidarity Fund through our project ‘Support for strengthening community peace’, which aims to build trust and strengthen relationships between security forces and journalists, civil society organisations and human rights defenders in Marib governorate. Our taking part improved conditions for media, legal and civil work in Marib, and it also reduced harassment.
The fund gave us the opportunity to build strategic partnerships with security forces and other civil society organisations. This experience resulted in establishing coordination, collaboration and joint work between Musaala and Sada. This in turn enhanced our role in serving our community.
We noticed several positive changes in our organisations since the start of our participation in the Yemen Civil Society Solidarity Fund. Firstly, we were able to implement a project as partners – the principle of partnership was implemented successfully. We invested the funding in developing our internal capabilities, including developing internal procedures and policies, as well as purchasing digital accounting software. Secondly, we were able to build strategic relationships with security forces and other organisations. Thirdly, we were able to reach more people and provide them with better services. The funding we received helped us expand the scope of our work and provide our services to more people in need.
One of the most exciting things about the fund was its commitment to enhancing peace, justice and human rights in Yemen. The fund provided financial, technical and logistical support to civil society working to achieve these goals. At Musaala and Sada, we are grateful to the Yemen Civil Society Solidarity Fund for its support. We believe its work is necessary to enhance peace, justice and human rights in Yemen.
Mathar Abel Jabbar Abel Razaq Fayed, Executive Director of Assistance for Response and Development (Al-Awon)
Our foundation works to improve livelihoods and services at the individual and community levels in Taiz. Through this funding, we developed a project to address the urgent needs of young people in juvenile detention. We provided comprehensive humanitarian assistance to two detention centres in various sectors – education, health, food, shelter, mental health, water, sanitation, protection and security.
One of the good things about the Yemen Civil Society Solidarity Fund was that we were able to choose our project and weren’t limited to a specific sector. This enabled us to identify and respond to extremely critical needs of a group that wasn’t supported by others before. This opportunity also allowed us to engage and network with other civil society organisations, and to coordinate our efforts to provide the best possible assistance. We noticed an overall improvement in the quality of our foundation’s work and reporting. If donors provide continuous funding that ensures the sustainability of civil society organisations’ work and empowers them to become self-sufficient in the future, it will serve as a strong incentive for civil society to continue their work.
As a result of the funding, our organisation now has office equipment and furniture, a website that facilitates communication, an electronic finance system, and a large office that protects the privacy of the women working at the organisation. Muhamasheen youth now have experience in monitoring and documenting cases of violence throughout their communities. They also have a broad understanding of how to conduct advocacy campaigns for issues that affect Muhamasheen communities, and a basic understanding of formulating ideas and drafting projects. This is a great asset for the Muhamsheen communities.
Abdel Karim Saif Mohamad Ali al-Saalmi, Executive Director of Al-Wed Foundation for Development
We work in Taiz, where we strive to contribute to peacebuilding, supporting development and advocating for human rights. Through the fund we ran our project, ‘Education for Peace’, which addressed low literacy and numeracy skills among primary school students in 15 schools across Taiz governorate – areas directly affected by the war.
Previously, most donors and international NGOs provided limited funding with challenging application processes, and most funding is constrained by prohibitive conditions and often involves favouritism and lack of transparency in the selection of partners. The Yemen Civil Society Solidarity Fund provided flexible funding opportunities to Yemeni civil society to implement projects based on their existing capabilities and their own visions.
We work to improve the situation of the Muhamasheen [a marginalised group] and other vulnerable groups in Yemeni society, and to protect them from all forms of violence, marginalisation, exclusion, deprivation and racial discrimination. Our work mainly targets Muhamasheen youth and women. We used the funding to serve these marginalised groups, including by holding training workshops for youth and women.
The proposal evaluation and selection criteria through the various stages, whether conducted by Saferworld or peers, was outstanding. The process strengthened the capacity of the applying organisations and gave them a broader understanding through reading their peers’ proposals. The fund played an effective role in bringing civil society together and facilitating networking between us through the peer evaluation process, joint training workshops and meetings.
The project constituted a glimmer of hope for teachers. Teachers are desperate and depressed due to the worsening economic situation. Their salaries are not enough to cover the basic requirements of a dignified life. This project raised morale and created an educational movement in the target schools. There are several great success stories where several students were able to read well after the project.
Yemeni society is eager for peace and wants to end the conflict and the war. We want all donors to know that Yemeni society wants to help them end the war. We want them to know that Yemeni society supports them towards achieving comprehensive development while empowering civil society organisations to provide their services effectively.
*Submissions have been translated from Arabic and edited for *clarity and length
Akram Abdo Ali al-Sharaab, Director of al-Nahda Youth Organization
The WPS helpdesk is an expert call-down facility that aims to provide flexible, responsive and easyto-use technical advice and support on WPS and gender in conflict and crisis contexts.
Gender, peace and security are central to our work in country programmes and on the international stage. For example, in Uzbekistan we worked to enhance the capacity of shelters and rehabilitation centres to provide support to women in need; and in Yemen we supported women-led hubs to bring women together to work for and broker peace.
Through the ‘Resourcing Change’ project – which provides women’s rights organisations (WROs) in South Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria with core and flexible funding to lead Women, Peace and Security (WPS) initiatives while addressing the conflict concerns in their areas –Saferworld demonstrated, through a learning paper and video series, the benefits that come when WROs and women peacebuilders are able to respond to their own self-identified needs and priorities. This funding allowed them to strengthen their organisational structures, build stronger movements for peace, and fostered greater flexibility in the face of changes in the context.
We have engaged in vital international advocacy, enhanced by our participation in networks like Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), the Civil Society WPS working group in Washington DC and the European Peacebuilding Liason Office. We organised a public webinar during the 68th Commission for the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN. This event brought together four women activists, three of whom work for Saferworld’s partner organisations, who provided a briefing on the situation in Sudan, including in Darfur, and made recommendations for a comprehensive approach to supporting Sudanese women to access protection during and after the conflict, and to participate meaningfully in peacebuilding to reach a more feminist and sustainable peace. Another international WPS event, WPS week in New York, saw us collaborating with Women for Women International, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and several of our partners in the Resourcing Change project to organise a high-level roundtable on the localisation of the WPS agenda. At this event, our partners from South Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria directly addressed representatives from UN Member States and agencies, emphasising how the WPS agenda should be anchored in the needs and concerns of the most marginalised and those most affected by the conflict, and spoke about the importance of core, direct and flexible funding to prospects for peace. 2023–2024 also saw Saferworld’s work on gender reach a truly global audience, with reports from our WPS helpdesk analysing the gendered impacts of conflict in Tunisia, the Pacific region, Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan, among other areas.
Saferworld USA
Following the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023, Saferworld USA facilitated the participation of Sudanese civil society partners in various international platforms to amplify their voices and perspectives on conflict transformation and advocate for peace in Sudan. We brought partners into conversations, meetings and briefings with US policymakers, including Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, officials from the Department of State Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and the Office of the Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan. We also worked with ten Sudanese activists and civil society members and assisted them in establishing connections with media platforms, including The Washington Post.
Saferworld brokered several advocacy meetings in the US regarding the conflict in Yemen, including on our concerns about the potential risks associated with US and UK airstrikes within Yemen since January 2024. We organised and facilitated an advocacy visit to Washington DC for a close partner to meet with think tanks, civil society and political officials across Congress and the government. We met with the US Special Envoy’s Office and US officials to share this analysis and worked alongside our Yemeni partners to draw together recommendations.
We continued as a thought leader on conflict sensitivity. This included co-chairing the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s (AfP) Conflict Sensitivity & Integration Working Group. We also moderated a panel on ‘Conflict Sensitivity Facilities – Toward a New Architecture’ at the 2023 annual PeaceCon. PeaceCon, which is hosted by AfP and the United States Institute of Peace, brings together frontline peacebuilders, policymakers, philanthropists and leaders from civil society and the private sector to engage in meaningful dialogue and develop plans for action.
Saferworld USA was invited – on the back of an article on peace enforcement, published in Just Security – to suggest questions (one of which was used verbatim) for a US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on peacekeeping.
IN FOCUS
THE CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND COUNTER-TERRORISM
The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism came together through a shared recognition that decisions on counter-terrorism at the UN are leading to significant harms in countries across the world. The coalition has documented how counter-terrorism has become one of the primary means through which states violate rights, attack civic and humanitarian space, crack down on dissent, and advance authoritarianism. Many states have increased their efforts to shape the UN counter-terrorism architecture to undermine – and even dismantle – international norms on human rights, civic space, and other fundamental freedoms.
Saferworld USA hosts the CSO Coalition Secretariat and has been a leading voice within it in drawing attention to the shifting priorities of the UN. In September 2023 we published a series of videos showcasing the voices of civil society activists as the UN launched its New Agenda for Peace, followed by a podcast released to mark the International Day of Peace 2023.
An October 2023 Coalition Strategy review highlighted that most efforts made by the Coalition and its members have sought to disrupt, reform and transform narratives and policies related to counter-terrorism and human rights; that there has been some progress in shifting narratives related to the impact of counter-terrorism on civic space; and that Coalition members have successfully made space for civil society contributions in key UN counter-terrorism policy-making processes, including during the Civil Society Town Hall on the eighth UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy review and UN country assessment visits, as well as through advocacy at the national and regional levels.
Also in October 2023, the CSO Coalition – in partnership with Fionnuala Ní Aoláin (the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms while countering terrorism), the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN, and the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN – hosted the event, ‘From Policy to Practice: Implementation of the Global Study on the Impact of Counter-Terrorism on Civil Society & Civic Space’.
This event brought together representatives of civil society, member states, the UN and others to discuss ways to implement the recommendations presented in the ‘Global Study on the Impact of Counter-Terrorism Measures on Civil Society and Civic Space’, produced by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin. Saferworld’s Policy Lead on the UN co-facilitated this event, and speakers included representatives from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Canadian government, and three members of the CSO Coalition.
Saferworld, through its hosting of the CSO Coalition and through its own research and advocacy, continues to press for the UN (and other governments who continue to prioritise militarised approaches to security) to keep people-centred security at the heart of its peace agenda.
Europe
Saferworld continued to work with our long-established European networks throughout 2023–24 to advocate for peace at the European Union (EU) level. Through the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office we contributed to the mid-term review of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework – the Union’s long-term budget, which includes development spending.
We maintained relationships with several Members of European Parliaments and officials from the European External Action Service, with whom we co-hosted a Conventional Arms Export Control Outreach Project (COARM) NGO Forum in Brussels. Through these relationships, we have built our leading role in advocating for EU arms control – including the use of the European Peace Facility for arms transfers in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In June 2023, a member of Saferworld’s Arms Unit was invited to speak on the panel at an event in the European Parliament, focusing on the link between exported Italian arms and human rights abuses by security forces in Egypt.
As the EU conducted its review of its Common Position on arms transfers, we published a series of four briefings offering recommendations around the following areas: export control of jointly funded and produced products to non-EU countries; possible changes to the EU Common Position criteria; post-shipment controls; and transparency and reporting. And as a leading voice in the informal ‘Brussels Group’, we organised and participated in several meetings covering topics including Ukraine, the conflict in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and the role of the EU and its member states in international processes.
China
An event held by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to mark International Women’s Day, March
In China, Saferworld Beijing works with the private sector and civil society to enhance their understanding of arms and export controls practices and conflictsensitive approaches to investment and development. In August 2023, Saferworld Beijing developed online training programmes with the Rongzhi Corporate Social Responsibility Institute, geared towards Chinese businesses with overseas operations. The training programme, which is part of a comprehensive capacity strengthening programme on risk identification and mitigation for business actors with overseas operations, focused on international non-proliferation efforts, arms and export control practices, and corporate compliance.
In June 2023, Saferworld Beijing helped convene several meetings in Brussels between Chinese and European security and peacebuilding civil society organisations and think tanks, as well as with the Chinese Mission and Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Brussels to introduce joint research on public perceptions of the Belt and Road Initiative and discuss prospects of EU-China cooperation on security, peacebuilding and climate action.
The Chinese environmental think tank Greenovation Hub (GHub) commissioned Saferworld Beijing to research the implications of climate change on Chinese investment and development cooperation in Central Asia, with the goal of generating clear policy recommendations for green investment in the region.
From left to right:
Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the general debate of the General Assembly.
One of the WROs, Child Bride Solidarity (CBS) in South Sudan, used its flexible funding to strengthen the voice and leadership of women in peacebuilding in Jonglei State. CBS’s approach included media trainings, women-led dialogues, supporting young women as peace leaders, and conducting media and social media campaigns. CBS also provided menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and sexual and reproductive health training, as well as menstrual pads, in schools. This increased young women’s access to and awareness of this information, services and supplies.
As well as increasing women’s access, CBS trialled a gender-transformative approach that raised boys’ awareness of MHM, increased interaction between boys and girls on the topic in schools, and addressed harmful social norms and masculinities that led boys to believe that periods are taboo rather than normal and natural.
This belief often translated into bullying behaviour by boys against girls, occasionally leading girls to miss classes or change schools. However, following the training, CBS noted positive changes among both boys and girls. It reported that after the training and an awareness-raising session, boys understood MHM was normal and natural, and they were open to being involved in the distribution of dignity kits. They also shared information from the sessions with their sisters, cousins and neighbours. Girls stopped missing classes and dropout rates and school transfers decreased. CBS also implemented complementary initiatives to promote young girls and women as agents of positive change who can mobilise and engage their families and communities to support the campaign against harmful norms and taboos, as well as against harmful practices like child, early and forced marriages. These young women and girls are already speaking up and taking a greater role in decisions that affect them in their households and in their personal health, creating a strong foundation for their future participation at home and in the community.
Members of women’s rights organisations in Nigeria who have participated in the Resourcing Change project.
From left to right: Adeseyi Alaba Adeola, Ngozi Eboh, Williams Arikpo, and Uduak Udofia.
Esiebo
Ways of working
Safeguarding
Over the last year, Saferworld prioritised the integration of safeguarding principles into our organisational culture. We worked hard to raise awareness, strengthen preventative practices and procedures, and embed safeguarding across the organisation.
This included the continued delivery of in-depth, full-day safeguarding trainings to teams in South Sudan, Somalia/Somaliland, the US and Yemen, as well as to central support and policy, advocacy and communications teams. Saferworld also delivered safeguarding inductions twice a quarter for all new staff. This training is now available on the organisation’s online training portal for all new starters to complete.
To collaborate with and engage partners on Saferworld’s safeguarding policies and procedures, the organisation continued to conduct safeguarding training and discussions with partners throughout project cycles. In-depth safeguarding workshops were also conducted when needed to create spaces for co-learning and collaboration. For example, the Safeguarding team supported colleagues and partners in Somalia to develop community reporting mechanisms in Baidoa and Kismayo, and focused on developing a partnership plan to address barriers in safeguarding collaboration. With input from the partnership adviser, safeguarding focal points and the working group, the plan includes organising a ‘training of trainers’ session, reviewing the safeguarding section on the partnership microsite, and forming a future steering group with interested partners.
These activities aim to ensure that we work together with partners to prevent and respond to safeguarding allegations and to help them to take safeguarding forward in their own organisations.
Saferworld reviewed and updated its global safeguarding policy, to reflect best practice and the needs of the organisation, based on the outcomes of staff consultations. The policy was then translated into Arabic and Russian and has also been distributed to staff and partners. The organisation is also in the process of reviewing its code of conduct and its child protection and vulnerable adult policy.
Saferworld also continued to implement a communications plan for safeguarding. This plan identifies steps to update and engage staff in safeguarding activities, policies, procedures and guidelines. These communications included updates in the internal newsletter, developing a SharePoint site for safeguarding, and giving progress briefings to the leadership.
IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, Anti-Racism and Solidarity)
We are fully committed to creating a workplace where everyone can be their true self, and can feel valued and understood for who they are and what makes them unique.
To realise this vision, we need to understand and address dynamics of power and privilege within our organisation, as well as commit to institutional changes. In 2021 we consulted our staff and developed a strategy of action and accountability for Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, Antiracism and Solidarity and in 2023–24 we continued to put the strategy into practice.
We held regional staff workshops aimed at reintroducing the scope of IDEAS, sharing achievements and monitoring, evaluation and learning data, and determining future plans. This was also an opportunity to promote Saferworld’s IDEAS Champions, who serve as a bridge between the IDEAS committee’s work and country-level staff and priorities.
We also increased our IDEAS engagement with leadership, such as presenting the IDEAS strategy and implementation updates to the Saferworld Board and meeting with both the outgoing Executive Director and incoming Chief Executive Officer, who lead on IDEAS. We also held an information and ideas exchange between staff and Saferworld’s Board of Trustees Safeguarding Focal Point. This provided a forum for staff to highlight areas they wanted the Board to focus on.
Working in partnership
Our partnership approach continues to be guided by a two-way model of international solidarity, accompaniment and mutual accountability, which allows us and our civil society partners to mutually benefit from each other’s skills, understanding and influence.
In 2023–24, we strengthened our partnership approach and explored complementary efforts that can help us achieve our organisational commitments to working in solidarity with CSOs, networks and platforms, and community groups across all programme and policy contexts.
This year we developed a new section in our ‘Partnership in Practice’ Guide specifically on small granting, including guidance on how to set up a small grants initiative, ensuring our partners can be flexible and responsive.
In Sudan we provided core and flexible funding to 15 CSOs and two emergency response rooms working across the country.
We conducted a cross-organisational review of our programmes in Sudan and Yemen, two countries where Saferworld and partners are piloting new community approaches. The review involved partners from the two countries, along with staff and partners from other areas where similar approaches are being – or could be – used.
Our hope is that the lessons we have learnt from these exercises, alongside our other activities, could be used more widely in the aid sector. Throughout the year we shared our experiences at international events and in blog posts.
Looking forward, we will conduct a wide consultation with all our civil society partners to explore and better define the work that we want to do, led by their priorities.
Above: Community members, elders, volunteers and law enforcement officials open a Local Crime Prevention Centre in Kyrgyzstan.
Financial update
This is a top-line summary of Saferworld’s income and expenditure in 2023–24, taken from our full audited accounts. You can see our full accounts in our Report and accounts (available at www.saferworld.org.uk). You can also download them from the Charity Commission website.
Expenditure by region 2023
OTHER ORGANISATIONS
n Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP)
n Amnesty International
n Article 19
n Bond
n CDA Collaborative Learning
n Charity & Security Network
n China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA)
n Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism
n Clingendael
n Crisis Action
n Danish Church Aid
n Durham University
n Emergent Justice Collective
n European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
n European Center for Not-for-Profit Law Stichting (ECNL)
n Flemish Peace Institute
n Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
n Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
n Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS)
n Global Center on Cooperative Security
n Global Emergency Group
n Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi)
n Human Rights Watch
n Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)
n International Alert
n International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL)
n International Commission of Jurists
n International Crisis Group
n International Development Law Organization
n International Federation for Human Rights
n Interpeace
n Life & Peace Institute (LPI)
n New York University Center on International Cooperation
n Oxfam
n Partners Global
n PAX
n Project Ploughshares
n Quaker United Nations Office Geneva (QUNO)
n Rethinking Security
n Rights & Security International
n Security Research & Information Centre (SRIC)
n Spaces for Change (Nigeria)
n Stockholm Environment Institute
n swisspeace
n West Africa Network for Peacebuilding –The Gambia
n Women for Women International
n Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
n Women’s International Peace Centre
n World Vision
Our donors
n Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust
n Asian Development Bank (ADB)
n Austrian Development Agency (ADA)
n Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
n Embassy of Sweden (Kenya)
n European Union
n Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland
n Ford Foundation
n Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)
n French Embassy to Sudan
n Funders Initiative for Civil Society (FICS)
n Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF)
n Humanity United
n International Organization for Migration
n Ireland Department of Foreign Affairs and Aid (IrishAid)
n Jocarno Foundation
n Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
n KfW Development Bank
n Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden
n Mott Foundation
n Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
n Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
n Open Society Foundations (OSF)
n Partners Global
n Pax Christ
n PeaceNexus Foundation
n Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
n The Arms Trade Treaty Voluntary Trust Fund
n The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
n U.S. Department of State
n United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
n United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
n United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF)
n United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Saferworld is an independent, not-forprofit international organisation working to prevent violent conflict and build safer lives in countries and territories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. We work in solidarity with people affected by conflict to improve their safety and sense of security, and conduct wider research and analysis. We use this evidence and learning to improve local, national and international policies and practices that can help build lasting peace. Our priority is people – we believe in a world where everyone can lead peaceful, fulfilling lives, free from fear and insecurity.
