This report summarizes the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform’s activities in 2016 that are framed by its 2015-2017 Programme. The Programme structures several activities aiming to network traditional and non-traditional actors in peacebuilding and advance innovative practice and thinking on peacebuilding. The overall work of the Platform in 2016 focused on the consolidation of major event initiatives, as well as its networking and communication, and operations.

Major event initiatives

• Peace Talks: UNOG, Interpeace and the Platform agreed on an Exchange of Letters for a Peace Talks Initiative. It develops a join language and vision for the Peace Talks, creates a small dedicated Peace Talks Office to strengthen operations, and constitutes the Platform as a co-founder and co-owner of the Peace Talks brand together with UNOG and Interpeace.
• Geneva Peace Week: After three years, Geneva Peace Weeks achieved “proof of concept” with further consolidation and development to take place in 2017. The 3rd edition included 45 events, over 150 speakers and around 2,400 participants, and the development of the website http://www.genevapeaceweek.ch.
• Building peace in the city: Follow the conference “Safer Cities +20”, Geneva, 6-8 July 2016, the Platform facilitated the inception of a biennial conference series to strengthen the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and SDG 11+16 and related goals. A multi-stakeholder process including a reference and core group works towards the first biennial conference 26-28 June 2017 building on the Platform’s networking achievements with city-level actors in 2016.
   

Networking and communication

• New Advisory Board: The Platform reviewed its Advisory Board representing a cross section of actors working on peacebuilding in Geneva.
• 21 networking events: Co-organized with 19 event partners – primarily in Geneva but also in Washington DC, New York and Quito – attracting over 1,000 participants.
• City networking: The Technical Working Group on the Confluence of Urban Safety and Peacebuilding Practice evolved into an expert network of over 100 actors.
• Communication: The Platform's database and mailing campaign was migrated to Mailchimp offering a more effective communication tool to reach out to the Platform's 4'000 contacts.
• New Papers: 12 new publications including a special paper series of the Technical Working Group and the first edition of the Geneva Peace Calendar.
  Operations
• Two-year mandate: The Platform grew to two full-time and one part-time staff, and continued collaboration with the SYNI work promotion programme. These developments were possible due to the renewed and increased support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, for the first time in the framework of a two-year mandate (2016-2017).