As an independent nonprofit, the Lab brings together do-gooders that run the professional gamut: engineers, entrepreneurs, activists, conflict experts, social scientists, data scientists, and more. The concept is simple: Bring together bright, optimistic minds in order to find solutions that will bring peace and prosperity to communities around the globe.
Read MorePeaceTech Lab has taken another step towards securing its position as an international leader in the use of technology, media, and data to accelerate local peacebuilding efforts with the addition of ChannelsTV CEO John Momoh of Lagos, Nigeria as its newest board member.
Read MoreThis transcript is from an interview conducted by Kibrom Worku of AfroFM News in Addis Ababa.
Read MoreDivisions between the people on either side of the Sudan-South Sudan border run deep. South Sudan’s declaration of independence in 2011 has yet to end the decades-long conflict between Misseriya Muslims and Dinka Christians.
Read MoreUsing the power of technology, media and data analysis to prevent tensions and conflicts in some of the world’s most violent areas from escalating: That’s the mission of PeaceTech Lab.
Read MoreSouth Sudan Focus is a 30-minute weekday English-language broadcast/internet program covering rapidly changing developments in South Sudan and the region. Sawa Shabab is featured in this episode.
Read MoreThe second season of “Sawa Shabab“, a radio drama aimed at helping youth in South Sudan resolve conflicts peacefully, begins this week. The radio program’s next 20-episode season is airing while South Sudan — independent for nearly four years — is still struggling under leaders who are of different ethnicities and are locked in a political dispute that frequently turns violent.
Read MoreOne of the greatest obstacles to understanding authoritarian societies is that the dissidents within them have few outlets through which to describe their lives, argue their opinions, and refute official propaganda. The people behind the website Movements.org hope to help change that status quo, using the principles of crowdsourcing to help activists connect with journalists and editors who can tell or publish their stories, or with anyone else who can help.
Read MoreThe United States Institute of Peace (USIP) held a panel discussion on the media’s influence in Middle Eastern conflicts at its Washington, DC headquarters on May 8. Entitled “Fanning the Flames or Fueling the Peace?”, it featured Anand Varghese, program officer of the PeaceTech Initiative, which is run by the USIP; Susanne Fischer, regional program manager at the Institute of War and Peace Reporting; and Ammar al-Shahbander, chief of mission at the Institute of War and Peace Reporting.
Read MoreSocial media may be protesters' favorite weapon, but new research on Syria's revolution shows it can do as much harm as good.
Read MoreIn Iraq, the second season of a special television show is about to begin. Salam Shabab – “Peace Youth” in Arabic – brings together teenagers between 14 and 18 from different regions of the country for a reality television show. Based on a curriculum co-designed by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and Iraqi educators, Salam Shabab is part education, part entertainment. Theo Dolan is the Senior Program Officer at USIP Center for Media, Conflict and Peace building at USIP.
Read MoreIn a matter of days more than 77 million people have watched Kony 2012, a 30 minute video about the crimes against humanity committed by Joseph Kony in Uganda. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding the video and the organization that made it, but one thing no one can doubt: more people now know more about the horrors endured by children in Uganda than ever before, thanks to the miracle of social media, and especially Facebook where it had huge viral distribution.
Read MoreEducational reality TV and social media are the drivers inspiring a group of Iraqi youth demanding a different future — one with peaceful resolutions and equality. Nareen, an 18-year-old Iraqi whose last name has been withheld for safety reasons, starred in Iraq's first youth reality TV show called Salam Shabab to compete for the title of becoming an "Ambassador of Peace" last year. Salam Shabab is a competitive TV show with the ultimate goal of uniting Iraq through peace building.
Read MoreThis is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house, work together and have their lives taped to find out what happens when Sunnis and Shias, Christians and Jews, boys and girls, 20-somethings from across the Arab world, stop hating each other and learn how to get along.
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