December 1, 2023: The Peace in Our Cities (PiOC) co-facilitators announce that the Carnegie Corporation of New York has granted a two-year award to fortify ongoing efforts led by Peace in Our Cities—building on the Corporation’s commitment to bolster initiatives reimagining multilateral approaches to global challenges.
At present, there is insufficient attention and investment in addressing the problem of urban violence. Yet, it affects a growing number of people as the world continues to rapidly urbanize, particularly in the developing world. With the Corporation’s support, PiOC will work to:
- Translate evidence and knowledge into action to meet the needs of policymakers working to reduce urban violence and develop innovative city-based violence reduction pilots to build peaceful communities;
- Establish mayors and city leaders as essential partners in shaping the global agenda and strategies for peace and security in the multilateral system; and
- Strengthen the architecture for city-to-city and local-to-global collaboration on peace and security issues.
Reflecting on the award, Bojan Francuz, PiOC secretariat member, said:
“In a time marked by heightened geopolitical tensions and a global leadership impasse in achieving ‘big peace,’ we are dedicated to playing our part. We will support city actors in addressing the issues of everyday violence in their communities, acknowledge their endeavors, and facilitate platforms for them to contribute to shaping our new global peace agenda.”
The Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego, and a PiOC co-facilitator, will serve as the key supporting institution primarily leading on the research and knowledge production elements. Rachel Locke, Peace in Our Cities co-founder and director of the Violence Inequality and Power Lab at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, said:
“Cities provide us with clear evidence on how to save lives, reduce harms and address the structural inequalities that reinforce cycles of violence; areas that often stymie those working at the national level. Investing in these proven and promising solutions—not through ad hoc, individualized investment—but through creating a supportive, integrated coalition that is both saving lives and shaping the policy landscape is the work of Peace in Our Cities. We are grateful to Carnegie for recognizing and investing in the promise of our ambition.”
The PiOC network co-facilitators, including the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, NYU Center on International Cooperation, and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security look forward to implementing projects within this grant to accelerate progress towards our ambitious goal to reduce violence in cities by 50 percent by 2030. This two-year grant will enable efforts across our network and facilitate our efforts to create concrete, participatory, and evidence-based exchanges to reduce and prevent the most severe forms of violence.
Together, we are demonstrating that progress is possible, and action is essential to save lives and make concrete gains for peace.