29 December 2014 – The third and last edition of Interpeace's 20th anniversary journal is out. The journal has been produced by the Interpeace Regional Office in Latin America to celebrate twenty years of peacebuilding. This journal seeks to highlight the activities carried out by Interpeace in the region.

The third edition is available here.

Celebrating Interpeace's pioneering work – reflections on twenty years of peacebuilding

Necla Tschirgi, Professor of Practice, Human Security and Peacebuilding at the University of San Diego and member of the Interpeace Governing Council, looks back at the evolution of peacebuilding as a field of research, policy and practice. She identifies two major phases: one in the aftermath of the Cold War, which heralded a new era of multilateral cooperation with a distinctly humanitarian and developmental impulse, and another post-9/11 one, which saw a resurgence of state-centric national security policies designed to address human security, conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Drawing on the transformations over the past two decades, Tschirgi concludes with a list of lessons on peacebuilding which have become the guiding principles of Interpeace.

Read the full article here.

Bridpging gaps: Interpeace and the reduction of violence in El Salvador

Otto Argueta and Arnoldo Gálvez reflect on Interpeace's contribution to the process of violence reduction in El Salvador. Following an explanation of the Track 6 approach and a description of the gang phenomenon in Central America, Argueta and Gálvez describe how the process of violence reduction must involve the largest number of social actors possible by breaking down the hostility between the government, civil society and local communities. They explore how the Track 6 approach helps bridge the gaps between each of these actors, thus leading to a greater participation and more dialogue on reducing violence.

The article is available here.

Interview with Max Loria, former Vice-Minister for Peace of Costa Rica

With growing youth-related violence in Central America, Interpeace implemented a project called "Public Policies for the Prevention of Youth Violence" in 2011, aimed at working with governments and societies of the "northern triangle" of Central America – namely Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – to prevent violence by promoting the integral development of young people. The central idea behind this initiative was to promote change that would reduce the gaps separating the interests of young people, the rest of society and the state. The success of this project has led to its expansion to neighbouring countries, including Costa Rica. As former Vice-Minister for Peace, Max Loria has played a key role in the project. In this interview, he explains the situation of youth in Costa Rica, the importance of the participatory processes to reduce violence launched by Interpeace, and the role of the Ministry of Peace in contributing to their success.

Read the interview of Max Loria here.