Cord’s peacebuilding approach is about more than the absence of conflict—it’s about building the relationships, systems, and structures that support justice, equality, and human dignity.
Why peacebuilding is needed
Today, almost one third of the world’s population lives in closed civic spaces—where basic freedoms are actively repressed. Around a quarter live in fragile states, where people face the combined effects of violence, climate change, economic insecurity and displacement.
These complex, overlapping challenges demand new and integrated approaches to peace.
Peacebuilding is not just about stopping conflict. It’s about building justice, restoring relationships, and creating systems that prevent violence and uphold human rights.
Our vision for peace
At the heart of our strategy, Build Peace, is a recognition that many of the challenges faced by communities are rooted in broken relationships—especially between powerholders and people.
When power is misused, and when groups don’t trust or understand one another, communities become divided. Basic needs are not met. Services like education and healthcare suffer. Rights are denied, and the risk of violence increases.
Cord helps to rebuild these relationships. We support the transformation of fear and mistrust into collaboration and mutual respect. We also work to strengthen the wider systems that support peace, through policy influence, advocacy, and long-term engagement.
Our approach
Cord’s peacebuilding approach addresses both the root causes and symptoms of conflict. We focus on strengthening relationships and building environments that support long-term peace and justice.
Our work is built upon and delivered through:
- Our Foundations – our core values and ways of working
- Our Three-Strand Strategy – our framework for building peaceful relationships
- Our Thematics – five focus areas addressing key drivers of conflict
These elements are interconnected and together form a holistic, rights-based approach to building lasting peace.
Our Foundations
Our Foundations are the core values and tools that guide all of Cord’s work.
How we work
- Locally-led: Cord passionately believes in a locally led approach as the only legitimate way to build inclusive and sustainable peace. We support local communities and organisations to lead change and influence decision-making.
- Values-driven: Compassion, dignity and interdependence guide how we work. We build respectful relationships and address the root causes of conflict with empathy and integrity.
- Rights-based: We support communities to peacefully claim their rights and hold those in power to account. We reflect, analyse and learn together with our partners.
- Long-term: Lasting peace takes time. We invest in meaningful partnerships and sustainable transformation that extends beyond project timelines.
Our tools
- Conflict Analysis: We support our partners to conduct comprehensive analyses of the conflicts they are working in to understand root causes, actors and opportunities for change. .
- Conflict Sensitivity: All programmes are designed to minimise harm and strengthen positive outcomes.
- Trauma-Informed Peacebuilding: The communities we work in have often experienced significant trauma due to violence and conflict, and its aftereffects. We integrate approaches that recognise and respond to trauma, supporting community healing and avoiding re-traumatisation.
- Non-Violent Communication: While there is a space for hard advocacy, this can sometimes lead to further harm. Non-adversarial approaches are essential to enable greater understanding and provide a basis for developing positive relationships.
Our Three-Strand Strategy
Cord’s peacebuilding work is based on three interconnected strands. Like the cord in our logo, each strand is strong on its own—but they are strongest when woven together.
1. Eqipping local peacebuilders
We support local organisations and leaders by:
- Equipping local leadership and local organisations through developing their leadership and organisational capacity.
- Support local partners Working with conflict to apply peacebuilding tools to design effective responses
- Local leaders are then equipped for action and supported to apply their learning
2. Supporting powerholders to engage with civil society
We work with governments, businesses and other powerholders to build their commitment to work with civil society by:
- Equipping those in power through training in human rights and inclusive governance to understand the importance of working with civil society.
- Enable local peacebuilders to find entry points for positive engagement with those in power
- Support advocacy to powerholders for policy level change
3. Creating opportunities for relationships to grow
We bring different actors together in safe and inclusive spaces to facilitate meaningful dialogue and identify shared solutions:
- Work jointly through Communities of Practice and Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues
- Resolve grievances using locally-led Alternative Dispute Resolution processes
- Strengthen networks for regular, inclusive decision-making and learning
Our Thematics
Cord’s work focuses on five thematic areas. Each one is rooted in Our Foundations, implemented through the Three-Strand Strategy, and developed through context-specific analysis.
- Building Peace through Economic Empowerment
- Building Peace through Women and Girls’ Empowerment
- Building Peace through Climate and Environmental Action
- Building Peace through Stronger Societies
- Building Peace through Promoting Fundamental Freedoms
