Sharon Bhagwan Rolls byUN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

The History of GPPAC

GPPAC started as an ambitious idea of a few people. They were looking to consolidate and strengthen civil society’s efforts to prevent violent conflict and build more peaceful societies. 

The late champion of peace, and then-UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan released a report on the prevention of armed conflict in 2001, urging NGOs with an interest in conflict prevention to organise an international conference of local, national and international NGOs on their role in conflict prevention and future interaction with the United Nations in this field.

And so, the GPPAC Global Secretariat was born, known then as the European Centre for Conflict Prevention. During extensive consultations with partners across several regions in 2003 and 2004, each region developed its own Regional Action Agenda. Then, in 2005, GPPAC officially launched its Global Action Agenda at a worldwide conference held at the UN headquarters in New York. Ever since, GPPAC has been working at all levels (local, regional, and national) to develop and implement strategies and programmes to put these action agendas into practice.

Today, GPPAC enables 15 regions, encompassing 200+ civil society organisations, to work together for peace. You can read about our current activities and projects here.

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