Shaping Regional Platforms

As the nature of armed conflicts change and new security threats emerge, regional organisations need to respond not only to the security concerns of their member states but also to the security concerns of the people who live in those states. As Regional Intergovernmental Organisations (RIGOs) are expected to take over greater responsibilities in preventing and managing conflicts anchored in a human security approach, the development of spaces for consultation and coordination with CSOs becomes critical. CSOs contribute a ‘people-centred – bottom-up' perspective that is often missing in state-centric security analyses.

Challenges and Opportunities

While regional organisations are well placed to play a vital role in addressing regional and global security threats, they also face some shortcomings. Meanwhile, civil society organisations have developed valuable expertise in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Due to the flexibility of their structures and their close relations to grassroots constituencies, they are often able to reach out where official governmental actors are not able to do so. The development of greater synergies and collaboration between RIGOs and CSOs would make an important contribution to global peace and security architecture.  

Our Approach

We create regional platforms for dialogue and cooperation between civil society organisations and their respective regional or sub-regional organisation, the UN and other relevant regional actors. Additionally, we work to develop a community of practice to strengthen the role of regional organisations in conflict prevention and peacebuilding in cooperation with civil society actors. GPPAC convenes a biennial global meeting of RIGOs, CSOs and UN representatives, as a space for horizontal collaboration and sharing. But most importantly, we work towards and strongly advocate the effective incorporation of a human security approach in the work of regional organisations.

GPPAC works to bridge the policy agenda between the global and regional levels, facilitating the sharing of experiences among RIGOs of different parts of the world and creating greater synergies among them, civil society actors and the UN.