WHITAKER PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to help societies affected by conflict, fragility and vulnerability transform into peaceful, resilient and productive communities. We operate on-the-ground peacebuilding and development programs in Mexico, Uganda, South Africa, South Sudan and the United States. We empower young women and men living in these parts of the world to become leaders, peacemakers and entrepreneurs in their communities. We help these young people become mediators who will address tensions and conflict between and within communities with competence and confidence. We help them become community organizers who are equipped to reach out to other youth to undertake educational and cultural projects to promote peace, dialogue and tolerance. We help them become entrepreneurs who can create economic opportunities for themselves and for their communities.
About This Cause
The Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) was founded in 2012 by artist, social activist Forest Whitaker, who is also the UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace & Reconciliation as well as member of the United Nations Advocacy Group for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). WPDI is a non-governmental organization that operates in countries and regions impacted by violence and poverty. We are a 501(c)(3) registered in California (45-4050957). Our core belief was – and remains – that young people are best positioned to spark positive change conducive to peace and prosperity in their communities. Programs were established in Mexico, South Sudan, South Africa, Uganda and the United States. In these very different terrains, we demonstrated the value of empowering youth and give them practical skills that they can put in the service of the community, advocating for peace and creating economic opportunities – notably in South Sudan and Uganda, where post-training surveys indicated that 78% of former trainees experienced positive career changes within six months of taking a training at one of our Community Learning Centers (CLCs). WPDI’s flagship program is called the Youth Peacemaker Network (YPN). It is a youth leadership and partnership program through which we mobilize young women and men as our partners on the ground. In regions where we operate, we start by coordinating with local leaders to identify approximately a core group of youth—a gender-balanced group that reflects the diversity of the underlying population—whom we train for a year to cultivate their abilities as community organizers, conflict mediators, and project managers. Our staff and experts support and mentor them as they design and implement community-building and income-generating projects in their neighborhoods, and we guide them as they go back to their communities and recruit other youth to join their projects. The main missions of these peacemakers include teaching conflict resolution in schools, championing peace through community dialogues, and creating small business with a social dimension. We also try to promote education and connectivity more broadly in our communities of action. A key tenet of WPDI is that learning is the key to lasting peace and sustainable development. We believe that providing vulnerable communities with practical skills that individuals can put to use in their daily life is the best way to strengthen their capacity for resilience. Noting, though, that those communities are precisely the ones lacking access to knowledge and skills, we have develop a concept of Community Learning Centers (CLCs) that we establish in the regions where we operate. These centers provide access to connected computers, to library services as well as variety of certified trainings that are free and open to women and men of all ages. Among the main body of trainings are conflict resolution courses that help reinforce the skills and dispositions of learners as global citizens who can address tensions and conflicts in their immediate environment. Our ICT courses are very popular in remote areas, where they provide community members of all ages with skills that become increasingly indispensable and help many of them find jobs or pursue further studies. Promoting entrepreneurship is a priority in our action. We offer courses in business skills and support the development of youth-led businesses. To ensure the profitability, viability and sustainability of the projects we foster, we have established a specific program, the “Business Boot Camp”, through which we incubate businesses that benefit their owners and their communities as well. None of these initiatives could exist without the generous financial, logistical, and strategic support of our partners. We are proud to work with a wide range of organizations—private companies, NGOs, individuals and governmental agencies—that share our belief that young women and men in conflict-impacted communities around the world have the capacity to come together to create extraordinary transformations. Our partners’ dedication to our mission and expertise in the regions and spheres we work in has been absolutely crucial to the success of our youth peacemakers. The unique vision of our founder is now a strategy supported by tangible results: some 250,000 people were impacted by our programs in our first five years of operation. We have learned much from this initial period and the number of our partners keeps growing. Our Main partners Bank of the West BNP Paribas Earth Institute Education Above all Ericsson Gemini Enterprises Africa IKEA Foundation Islamic Development Bank MTN Foundation Swedish Postcode Foundation Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Telmex/Telcel Foundation USAID UNESCO United States African Development Foundation UN Women Verizon Foundation Western Union Foundation Zain Group