The ECA School Director. The Director of the ECA, a multi-faith school working to fight discrimination at a local level in Chad. Insight on Conflict features more than 1,000 similar organisations.

Groups which harness the power of sport, art, music, and theatre are a reminder that the path to peace can take many different routes
Insight on Conflict now features profiles of more than 1,000 organisations, demonstrating that locally-led peacebuilding is thriving all over the world. With the recent addition of sections on Yemen and the Philippines, our extensive database covers local peacebuilding in 32 different regions, and is set to number more than 40 by the end of the year thanks to our EU-funded expansion. As part of that expansion, we have also been delighted this week to launch our mapping of 292 peacebuilding projects funded by the EU's Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace.

These achievements mark important progress in Peace Direct's work to raise recognition of the work that local peacebuilders do. The quality and number of locally-led initiatives we feature confirms our belief that solutions to conflict can arise from within communities themselves. The knowledge of local networks we are building, based on the work of our local correspondents, is expanding. And the value of this is being increasingly recognised by international organisations such as the UN, who recently supported our Peace Exchange in the Central African Republic.

Indeed, while the impact of local peacebuilding organisations is often perceived as marginal, the work identified by our local correspondents suggests otherwise. In all regions of the world, local organisations are playing pivotal roles in addressing the root causes of violence and building resilience from the bottom up.

We aim to ensure that this local action is recognised as a central element of any peacebuilding strategy by the international community - in more ways than one. Groups which harness the power of sport, art, music, and theatre are a reminder that the path to peace can take many different routes.

With the breadth and depth of our coverage expanding significantly this year, please check back as we expand the site and publish information on the new regions we intend to cover, including Ukraine, Syria and Tunisia. We continue to be inspired by the work of ordinary people doing extraordinary work - and hope you are too.