24 March, 2014 – Amman, Jordan: Generations For Peace and the Royal Norwegian Embassy have today signed a groundbreaking three-year partnership to support peace-building programmes in the Middle East and North Africa. The agreement is the first-ever multi-year commitment of long-term support by a foreign government donor to Generations For Peace. The Embassy’s support amounts to NOK 7.3M (approximately JOD 0.85M; or USD 1.2M) over the period 2014-2016.
The new partnership builds on the success of the Generations For Peace Amman Camp 2013, which was supported by the Embassy. It will support volunteer youth leaders, including those who were trained at that camp, as they implement Generations For Peace programmes in their own communities in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, and Yemen. The partnership also supports training events, including Advanced Training for experienced Generations For Peace volunteers, as well as the ongoing research and development work of the Generations For Peace Institute, to support innovation, and ever-greater quality, impact and sustainability.
At the signing, HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Founder and Chairman of Generations For Peace, said: “We are delighted that the Royal Norwegian Embassy has committed to this three-year partnership to support our long-term efforts to build peace in communities in the Middle East and North Africa. The Embassy’s support will enable us to expand our reach in the region, training and mentoring our volunteer youth leaders to use sport, arts, advocacy, and dialogue as tools for transforming conflict in their local communities, and passing their skills and knowledge onto others to create lasting positive change.”
Ambassador Sissel Breie affirmed the Royal Norwegian Embassy’s commitment, saying: “Supporting peace-building is a priority for the Norwegian Government, and the grass-roots conflict transformation efforts that Generations For Peace volunteers are leading in their own communities in the MENA Region are extremely important and effective. Generations For Peace has demonstrated the success of its unique cascading model and its focus on innovation, quality, impact and sustainability. We are looking forward to working closely with the team at Generations For Peace over the coming years.”
The programmes supported by this partnership will address a range of local issues of conflict and violence, including violence in schools and universities, violence between youth political groups, violence between religions, violence against girls and women, exclusion of minorities and divides between host communities and internally displaced people or refugees.