The Peace Agents Foundation is a private and operative Think and Do Tank. It aims to foster means of TRUTH, JUSTICE and RECONCILIATION in conflict areas and violent environments.

The martial art AIKIDO is considered as the ‘Art of Peace’ and as such it plays a key role in our strategic and methodical approaches working with conflict.

The foundation collaborates with peace organizations that develop innovative methods, conduct pioneer projects, and disseminate relevant research and project findings towards the achievement of societal relevance.

The origin of the foundation were programs and projects with conflict-affected people on Negros Island, Philippines created by local experts from the peace movement Pax Christi and a German civil peace service advisor.

We support organizations working with conflict for the empowerment and participation of people toward nonviolent intervention in conflict and just peace policies:

Initiatives of TRUTH

Our partner organization, the Peace Agents, intend to create an alternative intelligence service. The idea behind is the support of people living in unjust or violent environments through the provision of a strong voice against oppressive and destructive powers. The first necessary step is currently ongoing – the training of a roster of skilled officers in the Peace Agents Academy.

Nurturing JUSTICE

Every project supported has the clear goal of political, economical or social adoption and application. Eventually, positive results need either to be spread ‘horizontally’ – to get more people involved, or ‘vertically’ – to convince decision-makers for improvement of current unjust realities. Our interest is the strengthening of the existing judicial systems in the countries of our partner organizations by offering complementary projects and programs.

Facilitating RECONCILIATION

Our partner organization Warriors for Peace uses the martial art Aikido towards a fundamental change of war. Its prinicipal ideas are the transformation of an aikido practitioner into an architect of nonviolence and of potentially violent situations towards reconciliation ground. The assistance in the application of Aikido strategies and methodology is also an important function, the most specific task, and somehow the core of the Peace Agents Foundation.

Negotiating POLICIES OF PEACE

The translation of reasonable, needs-oriented and conflict-sensitive projects into policies of peace is the rate-limiting step toward long-lasting sustainability and societal relevancy.

Partners

Peace Agents – Isla Pilipinas, Inc.
The Philippine section of the Peace Agents. Offering comprehensive training courses for political awareness, empowerment and participation at their Peace Agents Academy in Bacolod City.
Established the first Peace Agents Society on Negros Island anno 2007.
In 2005, the Peace Agents in the Philippines gave birth to an intended creation of an alternative intelligence service of the peace movement.

BeeWell
BeeWell stands for natural, healthy food and its ecological production. It is founded as a Social Business in the area of Organic Farming with the goal of developing and producing nutritious and well-balanced food especially for children to oppose the health issue of children malnutrition in the Philippines. Profits gained are partly used to support the NGO work in Negros Island. BeeWell farm will also be a vehicle that will give the less privilege people the opportunity to learn and experience the advantages of natural agriculture and healthy food processing as well as to earn fair income.

Warriors for Peace – Pilipinas, Inc.
The Warriors for Peace focus on the martial art Aikido and its potentials for changing the nature of war. The organization offers one of the most intensive trainings for peace workers at the Warriors for Peace Academy in Bacolod City. Participants undergo a two-year apprenticeship consisting of various training courses offered by the Pax Christi Institute and every day twice Aikido practice.

HELP for Peace – Pilipinas, Inc.
The Health Professionals for Peace focuses on health care in conflict zones and the establishment of a health care system for the less privileged people living in underdeveloped conflict areas. It currently implements the Barefoot Doctors Action, Education and Research program’ for conflict-affected communities on Negros Island.

FAQs

Questions and Answers

If you have any questions about the Peace Agents Foundation, our work and our partners, please have a look at our FAQs first.

What is the Peace Agents Foundation?
What strategy does the Peace Agents Foundation pursue in order to achieve its goal?
What support does the Peace Agents Foundation offer to partner organizations?
Why is the Peace Agents Foundation supporting project management and organizational development?
Why is it so important for successful projects to be supported by politics and the economy?
What is the performance of the Peace Agents Foundation for donor organizations and sponsors?
How much do the Foundation’s services cost?
Why is the martial art Aikido so important to the Peace Agents Foundation?
Does the Peace Agents Foundation carry out own projects?
What people are behind the Peace Agents Foundation?
Who are the partner organizations of the Peace Agents Foundation?
Who are the target groups, and what are the strategies and methods of the partner organizations?
How can I support the Peace Agents Foundation or even become active?
Who are the Peace Agents? How can I join the Peace Agents?
What is the “Volunteer Program” of the Peace Agents Foundation?
What is the “A Piece of PEACE Adoption Program?

What is the Peace Agents Foundation?
The Peace Agents Foundation is a charitable foundation, which was founded in Frankfurt on the Main in June 2007. The foundation’s goal is to contribute to truth and justice in peace processes and to the reconciliation of parties involved in conflicts.

What strategy does the Peace Agents Foundation pursue in order to achieve its goal?
The Peace Agents Foundation supports and promotes organizations and institutions operating in conflict areas and crisis situations, which implement innovative and reasonable projects in peace and development work. Hereby, it is crucial that these projects become relevant for peace politics and thereby gain social relevance and get anchored in the country-specific legislation.

What support does the Peace Agents Foundation offer to partner organizations?
The Peace Agents Foundation supports its partners especially in three areas: (1) in the development or improvement of their own organizational structures, their program development and their strategy building; (2) in the management of programs and projects, from preparation and planning through implementation (operational management) to monitoring and evaluation processes; (3) in the dissemination of project ideas and project results within the political sector and toward political decision-making bodies, in public relations and, when appropriate, in the marketing toward companies in the private sector.

Why is the Peace Agents Foundation supporting project management and organizational development?
Our experience in conflict and development cooperation has shown that small or fledging organizations often have reasonable and innovative project ideas or special expertise to offer; but due to lacking experience some organizations cannot fulfill all requirements of a strategic and organizational planning and a profound management from the start. To compensate this lack of experience some would focus more on these tasks than on the projects, and this would cause much less benefit to the projects’ target groups, i.e., the people in the areas of conflict.

Collaboration with the Peace Agents Foundation enables organizations to focus on the development of their projects and at the same time to ensure and establish an efficient management together with the advisers of the Foundation. That way institutional capacities and human resources will be expanded and strengthened, and the organizations will be prepared to conduct their projects in the framework of wider social cooperation, for example in the context of a long-term support through the political or economical sector.

Why is it so important for successful projects to be supported by politics and the economy?
Only a few organizations have the financial resources to offer their performance to more than a small circle of interested parties on a longer term. Many good projects soon fall into oblivion after the project has been completed, or they never even reach the public. At the end, they render just little influence on a conflict situation, in particular with regard to complex crises.

Therefore, the Peace Agents Foundation accompanies their partners initially during the management processes in (a) piloting projects – for defining the opportunities and relevance of projects – and (b) the training of multipliers – so that the performance can be offered to many people. In a final step, (c) a successful project shall be made available to as many as possible people. This is usually being done through institutionalization, such as the embedding into a concrete political agenda, the inclusion into curricula of educational institutions or – in the case of a specific product, such as a service – by offering the product on the open market. By institutionalizing reasonable projects their further development and sustainability will be ensured, in addition to their dissemination.

What is the performance of the Peace Agents Foundation for donor organizations and sponsors?
Unfortunately, in many countries too many project resources still get lost on their way to the target groups; on the one hand, due to overpriced administrative procedures and bureaucracy, and on the other hand because of mismanagement and corruption. The Peace Agents Foundation supports partner organizations in their financial planning and control, so that project funds are used efficiently and effectively in a target groups-oriented way and transparency in the use of funds is given at any time.

Furthermore, it is the aim to close gaps in the perception and communication between financial donors, at home and abroad, and the organizations operating on the ground. Those gaps can be caused by cultural specifics, large geographic distances between the stakeholders or their different expectations.

How much do the Foundation’s services cost?
All volunteering professionals and resource persons of the Peace Agents Foundation in the country of the partner organizations work on a voluntary base and do not get any salary.

In case a partner organization needs a full-time specialist, for instance, for a larger project, and a financial support for this position is possible, the Foundation can provide a project-based consultant. The fee of the consultant is based on the capacities and conditions of the involved partner and donor organizations.

Why is the martial art Aikido so important to the Peace Agents Foundation?
Aikido is a martial art created in Japan and is, thus, at the first glance an extremely contradictory method of nonviolent conflict work and of conflict transformation. This moment, however, arouses the interest especially of parties involved in conflicts (as also of combatants) and of those parts of the population who have been living for a long time in and with conflicts. As a martial art that can be experienced physically, Aikido is simply to understand, tactically and technically.
At the second glance – and this is very soon after the initial contact with Aikido – the martial art pursues surprising objectives. Aikido stands for life and life form

Trustee
Rodesa Koop   

Board of Directors
Patrick Koop, M.D. (chairperson)     
Alexander Otto, Ph.D.  
Alexander Koop    
Simon Köhnke