is how we greet each other in my place of home in Germany. Servus is an old La-tin greeting, meaning that “I AM YOUR SERVANT”. In 2016, when we opened our dialogue meetings in Ukraine, I used this greeting as an indication that, as a third-party organisation, we remain always at service to those who are in need of as-sistance. Being professional, focused, and being effective servants for peace has been our strength and is a characteristic of all of us who worked together at me-diatEUr. In 2016, with a team of 7 professionals full of creativity, curiosity, and idealism, we have served those who requested, offered our help to many others, and, maybe most importantly, built the capacity of some to help themselves. We facilitated meetings in Brussels, Rome, Baku, Sarajevo and Andorra, Lviv, Kyiv and Kramatorsk, and we deployed and travelled all over the world to critical con-flict regions in assistance to the European External Action Service. For the deve-lopment of our dialogue platform, we collaborated with professionals as far as Chile. We expanded our intellectual mediation horizons by taking on new themes such as humanitarian mediation and mediation and land restoration. Progressi-vely, less time was spent to work with the European Institute of Peace, now well on its way as its own developed presence. Our members fed us with inspirations from wherever they worked, and we are grateful to them in keeping in touch and offering their support whenever we asked.

2016 was also a wake-up year in so many respects. Not more than 900 meters away from our office, at the Maelbeek metro station, a bomb killed people just after another one went off at the Brussels airport; the fear associated with terro-rism and conflict is now also close to us. It made us realise that, indeed, peace-making begins at home, leading us to propose a peacebuilding project in our neighbourhood but also to take stock of what we do and how we do it.

Financially speaking 2016 did not produce, counter to my own prediction, subs- tantial additional income that could have helped us to grow as an organisation. External tax audits and delayed donor payments put a strain onto our organisa-tion on the administrative financial front. This said we are financially healthy and stable with the limited resources that we require.

I don’t want to close negatively using the quote “Every failure is an opportunity to grow”. Rather, we had tremendous opportunity to learn and we continue to grow.

Sincerely

Antje Herrberg, CEO of mediatEUr

Dialogue Support Platform in Ukraine 9 Conflict prevention and mediation Support 11 Building global policy dialogues on peace issues 11 Land, Lives and Peace 12 Humanitarian Mediation 13 Joining the peacetech Community 13

Building space for dialogue in Ukraine 14 Towards resilient peace in Colombia 14 Brussels dialogue proposal 15 Electoral violence in the Horn of Africa 15

2016 was a year when mediatEUr's capacities were tested in many perspectives. We were quick to respond to requests, fast to deploy personnel to deliver servi-ces, speedy and efficient when it came to facilitating and communicating; we also had to multi-task and operate as a light-weight organisation, at the expense of having more time and focus for the actual work we want to accomplish. It was a year where we faced many fundamental questions:

à How can a small, independent, service-delivery oriented, non-for profit or-ganisation survive amidst multi-million Euro peace-building and peace-making organisations?

à Do we still have a raison d’être now that the European Institute of Peace that we helped to conceive is beginning to bloom?

à How can we ensure financial stability for the organisation whilst creating innovative peace-making programmes?

à As a small organisation, how can we use our creative peace-making energy instead of spending time for bureaucratic procedures, running after donor prospects and “maybes”?

à Why do donors in the peacebuilding community still struggle to recognise the need to work with local communities in a multitrack fashion, and rather prefer track II dialogues?

à How can we nurture and sustain a next generation of creative, enthusiastic peacemakers who can bring more peace to this world?

à Is it possible to keep the ‘spirit’ of peace-making in an international peace mediation ‘industry’ beset with competition and survival of the fittest, most concerned about numbers and delivering on political interests?

These are some of the question that we have all confronted in the year 2016. We have worked very hard and have shed some tears in the middle of all the joy and enthusiasm for being able to contribute our bit of peace to a world that needs it more than ever. And yet, we have realised our European Forum does not benefit from simply accepting the present trends of “bigger is better,” “politics is all that matters”, “it’s all about high level networks” or “stabilisation is the key”. That is why in 2017 we are looking to re-orient ourselves to where we are best: our peo-ple and members, our ideas and contacts, our desire to share and expand, our independence and creativity rather. Convinced that the world benefits from our collective spirit as convinced, capable, and collective peacemakers, we will hang in.

Exploring new ways to enhance networks and coordination among dialogue facilitators, writing recommendations for ongoing mediation processes, drawing up mediations cases in parallel worlds for simulations and trainings – and so much more. Insa Nieberg. Insa joined us as a Mercator Fellow. She supported our work in Ukraine as well as our broader mediation programming.

The day of the attacks in Brussels, I suddenly felt the proximity of the world’s challenges in a way I hadn’t before. More than any other experience, staying holed up in my apartment while chaos unfolded just a few miles away made me realise that the issues I work with – alienation, conflict, community – are not just abstract concepts; their influence is counted in human lives. Martin Leng. Martin joined us as an intern and supported our work towards a proposal for dialogue in the communities of Brussels.

Support the EU Institutions in their foreign relations, by providing specific external expertise in the field of conflict prevention and mediation support, it is the type of work where I can truly feel the very important role that the EU plays in a large number of conflict affected areas of the world. Nuno Costa. Nuno is the Manager of the Framework Contract with the European Union External Action Service.

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People say that peace needs months, years, even decades. My key moment in Ukraine was when I learned that peace needs trust, dialogue and friendships. Alex Azarov. Alex was our Country Officer in Ukraine, where we supported over thirty Ukrainian dialogue facilitators to keep the space for dialogue in the country alive.

That moment when I sat on the plenary at the Land, Lives and Peace meeting in Caux, when it dawned on me that peace processes are ‘just’ the surface but people from all communities (science, agriculture, international policy, the corporate sector and peacemaking) must work together to restore the planet to create peace, as competition for resources is the prime root cause for con-flict. Antje Herrberg, CEO of mediatEUr

Working with Ukrainian facilitators in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, helped me see the disconnect between what people in Brussels are discussing and what peo-ple living at the heart of conflict are going through. Miguel Varela was the Coordinator of our Ukraine work. In Kramatorsk, we ran a 2-day meeting with local actors to identify issues and possible solutions in the region.

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War in Eastern Ukraine affects all of us; we work to find ways to stop it and support the country in its path back to peace and stability. In 2016, we continued the work on our Dialogue Support Platform in Ukraine, delivering dialogue expertise workshops (in Lviv, Kramatorsk, and Kiev), developing unique reports looking at conflict issues in the regions of Lviv and Donetsk, expanding our conflict and peace mapping, and building the capacity of local facilitators and people interested in dialogue work.

In 2016, we also initiated contacts with the European Union to expand our initiative into a fully-fledged dialogue mapping effort. Our aim is to continue developing a dynamic understanding of conflict and peace in the country, while effectively building the necessary links with political processes to secure the positive impact of dialogue. In December 2016, we also secured the delivery of 20 workshops to introduce dialogue to different communities of hosts and internally displaced persons in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, a work that mediatEUr staff developed jointly with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Ukrainian Network of Dialogue Facilitators in early 2017.

Some of our achievements Our work in Ukraine in 2016 helped us promote a more comprehensive image of dialogue and connect dialogue initiatives across the country. Here are some of the project’s milestones:

à We continued building the group of participants in the platform, reaching facilitators from practically all of Ukraine’s regions. A total of more than 130 individuals have taken part of our work, including facilitators, international actors, local authorities, and civil society have taken part in our meetings.

à We built our own online dialogue mapping system, “Peacelogs”, a prototype that marks the way ahead for dialogue mapping initiatives that rely on technology and peace expertise.

à We held three professional development meetings, in Lviv, Kramatorsk and Kiev, and two “world café” meetings with local authorities specific to Lviv and the Donetsk region to uncover the main conflict issues affecting the local population.

à We stimulated cooperation among the OSCE and the UNDP, two of the key international actors for dialogue in Ukraine.

à We expanded our mapping of dialogue in the country, identifying more than 50 conflict categories, producing thematic reports, and clustering information. All of it, open for public access.

à We initiated a process for the delivery of 20 workshops for the introduction of dialogue in Donetsk and Lugansk with the IOM.

Taking the work forward While the project ended in June 2016, mediatEUr’s efforts for coordinated, impactful dialogue in Ukraine continue. In June 2016, we submitted a proposal to the United Nations Development Programme for the expansion of the initiative; in late 2016 we designed a full-scale dialogue process and submitted a proposal to the European Union in Ukraine to cover the following areas of work:

à Strengthening local capacities for dialogue, process design and peacebuilding

à Putting dialogue into practice to address local issues, utilising a common reporting system, and introducing dialogue to the territories affected by the war.

à Building bridges between politicians, authorities, and local communities through regular consultations and with the support of international experts.

à Building a nuanced understanding of conflict in Ukraine, with the full implementation of a peace mapping that identifies all initiatives for peace and the issues they seek to address.

à And, finally, strengthening coordination among international actors, to promote targeted and measurable responses.

Framework contract with the European External Action Service

We are committed to a principled approach to ensure the integrity of EU-funded conflict prevention and mediation support; that is why, in 2016 we are now in our second year to lead a consortium of organisations – Berghof Foundation, CITPAX, Swisspeace, ESSEC Irene and mediatEUr – working to support the European External Action Service. In 2016, we engaged in 22 Assignments, including participatory conflict analysis, capacity building, technical advice, specific facilitation support and logistical support, development of new thematic and geographic conflict-related expertise. MediatEUr itself deployed 9 of our experts to missions covering different geographic and thematic areas:

à Conflict Risk Analysis Workshop on the Regional Dimension of the Kurdish Issue (Brussels, January 2016)

à Facilitation of SECPOL2 retreat and conflict analysis training (Brussels, February 2016)

à Regional Analysis Workshop on the Role of Gulf Actors in conflict dynamics in North and Sub-Saharan Africa (Brussels, March 2016)

à Conflict analysis process on Central African Republic (Brussels, April 2016) à Help Desk Function IV (June 2016) à Mediation Coachings for EU Head of Delegation in DRC (October 2016) à Mediation Coachings for the EEAS Security Policy Acting Director

(November 2016) à Lessons learnt paper on EU Stabilisation experiences (November 2016)

In 2016 MediatEUr explored new horizons to accomplish its mission in building global networks of mediators and deepening dialogue on the critical mission for peace-building. With a donation of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, we designed the content of four critical policy dialogues, developed the communication tools around them, delivered written and visual reports, and facilitated four conferences held in Baku, Rome, Andorra, and Sarajevo convening hundreds of high level participants. In doing so, we were able to connect and work with many former World leaders on issues such as radicalisation and religion, challenges for the new world order, the importance of multitrack dialogues, and the future of European peace. These dialogues played an important role in connecting present and former leaders to discuss divisive issues such as Syria, Iran, peace in the Balkans, radicalisation, Libya, and European immigration in a safe environment.

The connection between land degradation, migration and international security seems so obvious to many, yet the connections between land degradation and peace making and peace building are not yet fully more. As a result, many peace agreements and processes fail because of it, and migration flows continue to put pressure on governments. It is food and water shortage that make people strug-gle for survival and even take land from each other. Coupled with the interest of large multinationals that exploit the environment of many countries in exchange for licences for corrupt government, with no consideration for local populations, these issues become the root causes of conflict in many parts of the world, espe-cially in the African continent. Antje Herrberg was invited to the Initiatives for Change week-long meeting on Land, Lives and Peace to speak at a Plenary about the connection between land degradation and peace, next to scientists and bo-tanists, farmers and economists, and representatives of the FAO. The meeting opened our mind to engage more deeply on this key question and to eventually advocate for it in an operational way measures of how these critical issues can be built into peace and dialogue processes. We are working on this issue with great Partners like ICRAF and Land, Lives and Peace.

Is there a difference between humanitarian and ‘normal’ mediation? Can humani-tarians mediate? For what do they mediate? Is humanitarian access in crisis situa-tions something that can be mediated? Or is the humanitarian “no go” territory for mediators, as the protection of civilians is not negotiable? What are the red lines? How can one define ‘humanitarian mediation’? Antje Herrberg was able to contribute to the working group of Humanitarian Mediation at the Centre for Competence for Humanitarian Negotiation under the auspices of the Internatio-nal Red Cross. Following the first conference on Negotiating Humanitarian Action on the Frontlines on 25 October 2016, in which the Centre for Competence has been launched, where she had an opportunity to speak out, there have been se-veral pilot programmes and development of training programmes from that Cen-tre of Competence on the theme.

Miguel Varela, our Dialogue and Innovation Officer, was invited to give a short talk at the 2016 Build Peace Conference. We presented our work in Ukraine and the opportunities for dialogue mapping in front of a great community dedicated to putting technology to the service of peace.

2016 was a year of investment and development at mediatEUr. In a field that is rapidly changing to leave small NGOs behind, we were actively looking for ways to continue supporting the work of peacebuilders around the world.

Peace in Ukraine is crucial for stability in Europe; to achieve it, Ukrainian dialogues must be given space, care, and attention. By the end of our Dialogue Support Platform project, we proposed an enhanced approach, moving from identification of dialogue opportunities to building a specific dialogue process at all levels. The proposal was submitted to the United Nations Development Program, who in turn referred us to the European Union Delegation in Kiev.

To enhance our reach and capacity, we paired with the Ukrainian think tank ICPS (International Centre for Policy Studies), long-standing partners of mediatEUr. Together, we built a detailed proposal for the EU, outlining key areas to be covered by the project. Overall, the proposal made to the European Union included the identification of specific conflict issues for each region of the country, the organisation of dialogue sessions around them, and the building of a group of high-level personalities who would carry the issues up to policy discussions. In total, two years of work that would help revitalise a field, dialogue, that in 2016 continued to suffer from a lack of coordinated support.

2016 was a year of great progress for peace in Colombia, but also a challenging one; the failure of the referendum on the peace agreement with the FARC highlighted the deep political polarisation in the country, and the need for enhanced dialogue mechanisms. A three-person team at mediatEUr, in cooperation with CITpax in Colombia, designed a large-scale project for integrated dialogue across the country. The project included three areas of action:

à Addressing local concerns and building a joint vision of peace à Complementing local mediation capacities à Documenting progress through a dedicated observatory

After many rounds of consultation with the European Union the project has not yet received funding, without clear reasons.

In Autumn 2016, the Brussels Regional Government launched a call for proposals seeking innovative grassroots dialogue projects to respond to perceived inter-community tensions in the city. Although many small initiatives exist in the city to bring people from different backgrounds together, our research found that they were disparate and working in isolation, whilst competing for limited funding. In response, mediatEUr prepared a project proposal which would deploy our existing dialogue mapping capacities in a context which was much closer to home than usual, with the aim of building bridges between these isolated community mediation efforts. The proposal was jointly developed with the Egmont Institute and L'Université de Paix ASBL, who brought significant local expertise and research capacity. Unfortunately, the project proposal was not selected by the Brussels Government, although it launched a similar proposal of its own shortly afterwards.

2016 saw a turning point in Somalia's democratic development, with Parliamentary elections being held which - for the first time - were not totally reliant on the traditional system of elders. In this context, mediatEUr embraced an opportunity to work closely with key stakeholders in the electoral process, with the aim of deploying our mediation capacities in an effort to minimise the risk of electoral violence. This exploratory work led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), with whom we began the development of a larger electoral violence project which would cover the entirety of the Horn of Africa. This cooperation is ongoing and we look forward to contributing our skills in mediation, facilitation and training to support ECES' work in the region's fragile democratisation processes.

The fields of mediation, dialogue and peacebuilding are rapidly morphing to adapt to a world where technology has become a pillar for many of our daily in-teractions – and we are adapting with them. We piloted our approach to peace technology with our work in Ukraine, first making use of the Debategraph map-ping method and then moving on to designing our own online tools.

In 2016, we dedicated part of our resources to exploring and researching options for applying online mapping mechanisms to dialogue work. In March, we laun-ched an updated version of the Dialogue Support Platform that allowed us to visualise conflict issues, peace organisations and dialogue facilitators on a geo-graphical map. It also helped us connect the dots between different dialogue themes and conflict issues.

In approaching technology for peace, we believe three principles need to be fo-llowed:

à Conflict sensitivity: while many areas that relate to peace are factual and easy to measure (incidence of violence, access to water supplies, etc.), dia-logue and mediation usually deal with issues as intractable as feelings and emotions. To account for those, we make sure our technology for peace has a strong human component.

à Accessibility: access to technology in conflict environments is often limi-ted (due to poor infrastructure or online access blockades). Technologies for peace need to be nimble, easy to use, and be accompanied by adequa-te training where necessary.

à Local ownership: to guarantee the accuracy of the information and the inclusivity of the process, technology needs to be used by the people who are most important to peace: local parties.

Brendan McAllister Bernard Defalque Dr. Antje Herrberg Christian Hipp Dr. Juan Díaz Eugene Van Kemenade Marc Otte Dr. Luis Peral Dr. David Price Kathrin Quesada (admitted in 2016 as a new member) Dr. Dietmar Reich

Membership meeting Date: 29 September 2016 Place: Brussels

Assets: 214,046 Liabilities: 214,046 Association Results: 2203.51

Antje Herrberg, Chief Executive Officer Nuno Costa, Operations Manager Miguel Varela, Project Coordinator and Dialogue and Innovation Officer Alez Azarov, In-Country Officer Oleksiy Stasevych, Assistant Ukraine Martin Leng, Intern Insa Nieberg, Fellow

European External Action Service United Nations Development Programme Nizami Ganjavi International Center

© 2017, European Forum for International Mediation and Dialogue e.V. (mediatEUr)

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Layout and design: Miguel Varela

Photo Credits: “Je Suis Bruxelles”: Martin Meissner/AP/SIPA

“Build Peace Conference Group Photo”: Omer Malnik “Land and Peace”: Land, Lives and Peace working group

All others: Miguel Varela/mediatEUr