Foundation For Peace and Development (FPD) was established in 2011 as a grassroots peace and development organisation. The mission of FPD is to promote human rights practices and peaceful co-existence in Liberian society.
The dream of the founders is to work with other institutions that are involved in conflict prevention through the establishment of a network of community based organisations. The main focal areas are peacebuilding, conflict mediation, gender sensitive advocacy, youth and women empowerment, democracy (promoting civic education and good governance), rural sanitation and livelihood promotion.
With peace in Liberia at the top of FPD's agenda, the organisation has begun building strategic partnerships with other community groups. It plays a leading role in networks such as the 'Conflict Early Warning Working Group' and the 'Elections Co-ordinating Committee'.
The FPD work to foster collaborative transformation of conflict, and potential conflict situations into exampless of peaceful co-existence and tolerance.
Major achievements & success stories
FPD is an active member of Liberia’s Conflict Early Warning and Early Response Working Group - a network of organisations working for the early detection of threats to peace, who are responsible for the development of response strategies to prevent violent situations.
The FPD is currently part of a task force working to mediate in a political conflict that has taken a religious and ethnic dimension in Liberia. The conflict resulted from the appointment of a member of the Muslim dominated Mandingo ethnic group to the government position of District Commissioner for Salala District. Salala is located in Bong County, central Liberia.
This appointment has led to a split, with the majority of the town’s population refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the powers of the appointed commissioner. The FPD and other partners have held community dialogues, consultations and other conflict transformation activities in response to this. While this is currently on-going, the majority of the parties have agreed to the holding of a community-wide reconciliation dialogue to determine the next steps for a final resolution to the crisis.
