Peace Tools facilitates communication and learning for parties engaged in conflict resolution and peace processes. It is a suite of applications and resources that have been developed from the extensive experience of diverse group of conflict resolution and peace building professionals working across the globe. Peace Tools integrates commercially available technologies with tailored knowledge resources and applications drawn from the experiences of both its founding authors, as well as the perspective and continued learning of its users over time.

As a communications tool, it brings stakeholders into online collaborative shared spaces to exchange information and work together towards mitigating and transforming conflict. Peace Tools is built on the Groove platform, which allows this communication to take place regardless of the location of the participants, all that is required is a computer and a connection to the internet.

As a learning tool, it is both a repository of continuously updated information on conflict resolution and peace building, as well as an interactive tool that assists individual users to enhance their knowledge and capacity to understand both the theoretical and practical aspects of conflict situations, as well as to analyze and develop alternative courses of action. 

By providing mechanisms and applications for public and private collaborations (i.e. often requiring confidential / secured environments), the tool further enhances the capacity of people and organizations to work collectively on transforming conflict. Its open architecture allows stakeholders to develop, implement and integrate best practices and appropriate Conflict Prevention, Mitigation and Resolution (CPMR) initiatives - including traditional, culturally specific methods - drawn from resources internationally and their own experiences.

Peace Tools is a living vital resource for individuals and institutions working on conflict resolution and peace building internationally. We are grateful to the World Economic Forum's Transitions to Peace Initiative for providing the opportunity to convene leading practitioners and thinkers whose contributions were a significant part of Peace Tools' initial conceptual frameworks.

Peace Tools is a work in progress.  Many segments of the  are being piloted by the Peace Appeal Foundation in Sri Lanka, in conjunction with our IT partners, Infoshare and Groove Networks. 

The primary components of Peace Tools include:

Negotiations Table - a virtual, secure environment integrated with multiple communications applications, where documents outlining issues and positions are hosted and tracked, allowing parties in conflict to meet virtually without requiring their presence in the same room.

Peace and Conflict Mapping - a set of applications which can map publicly available information on conflict and peace building efforts, and which assist users in on the ground surveys and analysis of conflict drivers and peace assets in communities.

    - Conflict Navigator
    - Peace and Conflict Mapping

Peace Builder - a set of applications which assist users in analyzing conflict situations employing multiple frameworks to assess conflict dynamics, develop new frameworks for conflict transformation, and analyze the multi-sectoral drivers as well as potential interventions in conflict situations.

    - Framework for Conflict Analysis
    - Conflict Transformation and Peace Building
    - Multi-sectoral Manager

Peace Guide - a continuously updated database that tracks global conflicts by key issues, stakeholders, strategies and the status of their implementation.   

    - Peace Index and Database
    - Process Dynamics
    - One Text Process

Peace Library - a compendium of global conflict resolution and peace building resources that is continuously updated with specific resources for individual conflicts updated by editorial review and advisory boards.

PeacePipe - an online directory of peace education resources and multi-media tools and strategies.

Social Networking Sites - Peace Tools utilizes Social Networking platforms to connect key stakeholders and resource persons in countries of conflict. With a user base of several hundred million, Social Networking platforms are a community unto themselves with thousands of sub communities nestled within the whole. Peace Tools maintains a presence on Facebook, Myspace, Ning and Orkut to network and connect ‘friends’, stakeholders, resource experts and activists to each other and provide access  to knowledge resources and tools that can assist them in their work. The Peace Tools network has connected people from more than 70 countries in common joint collaborative spaces. In addition to the Peace Tools group, there are country specific groups maintained to focus specifically on national issues in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Burma, South Africa, Burman, Zimbabwe, Colombia and Nepal. Peace Tools also makes use of other web resources available, such as wordpress where it maintains a blog, and flickr where it maintains a photo stream of its activities in Sri Lanka. 

Visit the groups here:

    - Burma Dialogue for Peace
    - Lebanon Dialogues for Peace
    - Nepal Transitions to Peace
    - South Africa Peace Process
    - Sri Lanka Peace Appeal 
    - Zimbabwe Dialogues