Sustaining Peace

The PaRD Sustaining Peace workstream focuses on SDG16: promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Focusing on the role of religion in sustaining and building peace, the workstream is committed to support action on SDG 16 at the grassroot level. This includes identifying a subset of countries where workstream members are already working in, in order to collaborate with local governments on national and international plans to advance SDG 16.

Workstream members commissioned a scoping study on “Partnering with Local Faith Actors to Support Peaceful and Inclusive Societies” during the High-Level Political Forum 2019 in NYC, USA. The scoping study was presented and discussed at the 10th Religions for Peace World Assembly in Lindau, Germany in August 2019 and at the Tony Blair Insights Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2019. Furthermore, the workstream co-hosted an online seminar with JLI on “Ending Violence Against Children” in September 2019 and supported “Faith Action for Children on the Move”, i.e. for the Global Refugee Forum, in December 2019. Besides, the Sustaining Peace Workstream co-hosted an online seminar with World Vision and the Conflict Sensitivity Community Hub (CSC-Hub) on “Navigating the Nexus in the DRC” in June 2020. During the Geneva Peace Week (November 2-6, 2020), the workstream together with the other PaRD workstreams produced a podcast on Identifying Funding and Resource Gaps with COVID-19 in the Field: A Religious Actors Perspective on Health, Gender, Environment and Peace.

Building on this work, the Sustaining Peace (SDG 16) workstream commissioned a follow-up study in 2022 on the effectiveness of local faith actors in humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding (HDP) work in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region – one of the most religiously diverse and conflict-affected areas in the country. Drawing on surveys and interviews with over 700 community members, faith actors, and implementing partners across 12 states, the study provides evidence that local faith actors make meaningful contributions to peace, justice, and inclusive societies in line with SDG 16. It further identifies opportunities to strengthen their impact through targeted funding and capacity-building. Read the full study here.

The workstream’s engagement in Nigeria also extends to the intersection of peace, food security, and climate resilience. In 2022, an initiative supported by PaRD members KAICIID and the World Council of Churches (WCC) empowered religious leaders in Benue and Rivers States to address the interconnected challenges of food insecurity, climate change, and conflict. Through the Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace (IDFP), 60 religious leaders, policymakers, and security professionals received training on how climate-driven displacement and resource scarcity fuel tensions in their communities. The project demonstrated the pivotal role of faith actors in promoting climate adaptation, conflict prevention, and peaceful co-existence, contributing to SDG 2, SDG 16, and SDG 17. Read more here. Building on this engagement, the Sustaining Peace (SDG 16) workstream hosted a three-day “Do No Harm” (DNH) training in Abuja in November 2025, in collaboration with Tearfund Nigeria. The workshop brought together 28 Christian and Muslim leaders, youth workers, and peace practitioners to strengthen conflict sensitivity skills and apply DNH principles in their communities. By grounding conflict-sensitive practices in shared scriptural traditions from both the Bible and the Quran, the training fostered deeper interfaith dialogue and trust, with participants recording a significant increase in knowledge and nearly 90% expressing confidence to apply the skills in their work. Read more here.