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Workshop: Muslim Humanitarian and Development Organizations in and around Conflict Zones: Barriers to and Opportunities for engagement
May 22, 2017 - May 23, 2017
| UN Headquarters, Conference Room 9
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A Closed-Door Dialogue and Focus Group
This year, in partnership with the British Council and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations -‐ as Lead for the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Development -‐ the Civic Approaches to Conflict in the Muslim World Initiative at Georgia State University will convene leaders in the humanitarian and development sectors. The discussion will consider ways that the Muslim development and aid sector can be more robustly engaged to address the shared challenges facing the international community. In doing so we also aim to build trust and share knowledge between non-government, faith-based actors working with American, European and Middle Eastern policymakers.
Under the auspices of the Civic Approaches framework, we have explored the ways in which civil society organizations and networks in Muslim societies have mitigated, prevented, or helped stabilized various forms of conflict and violence. Our focus groups and case studies have investigated topics such as the Syrian refugee crisis, Islamic sectarian violence, and radicalization. Our recently published report, Civic Approaches to Confronting Violent Extremism, is a good representation of the kind of sector- wide research we produce.
The meeting in NYC is a continuation of smaller focus groups conducted last year in Istanbul, Washington D.C., and Brussels. We believe that your experience with the issues we are exploring, especially in your role with the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Engaging Faith-Based Organizations for Development, will add tremendous depth to the discussion and the final report to be published in August 2017.