What Local Ownership Requires of Non-Locals
Libby Hoffman and John Caulker on what they’ve learned from nearly two decades of partnership in Sierra Leone about transformative partnerships between locals and non-locals.
What is possible when the people and communities most impacted by violence get to lead in building peace? And what does it take to support their leadership systemically, instead of episodically and in isolation?
Libby Hoffman and John Caulker have learned that it requires radically reimagining partnership between locals and non-locals, something they have forged in practice over the last 18 years working together to support healing and social repair in Sierra Leone (and beyond) after civil war.
A human rights activist during Sierra Leone’s civil war, John knew its affected communities intimately, and he understood that international tribunals and truth commissions couldn’t deliver the healing and social repair his country needed. Together with the communities where they worked, John and Libby co-created a new, whole-system approach to peacebuilding, grounded in the rich resources of culture and community already present.
More than 2,500 villages undertook reconciliation ceremonies rooted in the indigenous tradition of fambul tok. That work birthed lasting community engagement structures like Peace Mothers and Community Mediation Committees, which then birthed the People’s Planning Process, a new approach to economic development adopted by the Sierra Leone government.
Now, as their partnership evolves into the Heart of Africa Platform for Inside-Out Peace and Development (HOAP), they offer valuable insight for funders and practitioners seeking to catalyze similar change at a systemic level.
Libby Hoffman writes in Volume I of the Global Peace Almanac, and this conversation expands on her essay. Reading the essay beforehand is not required, but it will sharpen the discussion.
The Panel
Libby Hoffman - Founder and President, Catalyst for Peace
Libby Hoffman is the founder and president of Catalyst for Peace, a co-founder of Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone, and author of the award-winning The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out (Blue Chair Press, 2022).
John Caulker - Executive Director and Founder, Fambul Tok
John Caulker is the founder and executive director of Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone and a global consultant on community-centered peace and development. A human rights activist during his country’s civil war, he co-created the Fambul Tok process with the communities most affected by it.
Jesse Eaves - Moderator, Humanity United
Jesse Eaves is senior director for peacebuilding at Humanity United.