The independent resource on global security

Program Day 1 – Tuesday, 4 May

Day 1
     

 

11.30–13.00 CEST Preventing conflict and building trust in cyberspace in the Middle East

OSCE Cyber Conference & Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

This session will delve into concrete tools for reducing conflict that stems from the use of information and communication technology, including confidence-building measures (CBMs). It will focus on the lessons learned from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in implementing cyber CBMs and how they apply to other regions such as the Middle East. Online session

14.00–14.30 CEST Opening session: Compound risk - What it is and why it matters

Ann Linde, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden

Jan Eliasson, Chair of the Governing Board, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Hajer Sharief, Co-Founder, Together We Build It

Live streamed session

14.30–15.45 CEST Managing interconnected risk: Promises and pitfalls of the international system

The Covid-19 pandemic poses a direct threat to global health and also reinforces and overlaps with other global challenges such as conflict, violence, geopolitical tension, debt burdens and socio-economic inequalities. And it is all happening against the backdrop of ongoing climate change.

The current situation is testing the multilateral order. Global and regional organizations are created with restricted mandates. However, siloed approaches are not likely to counter the interconnected and intersecting nature of risks that the world is facing. 

How are our global and regional organizations rising to the challenge? What works and what needs to change? The panel will address measures that key global and regional organizations can take, internally and externally, to assess and respond to multidimensional risks.

Speakers:

Ann Linde, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden

Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Liberia

Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General, United Nations

Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Commission 

Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, African Union 

Axel van Trotsenburg, Managing Director of Operations, World Bank

Live streamed session

16.00–17.15 CEST New frontiers in peacebuilding: The role of social media

In partnership with OSCE Cyber Conference and Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue  

Social media platforms can be positive spaces where people can connect, forge linkages and mobilize for human rights, accountability and peace. But they can also drive polarization and extremism, be used to incite violence and hatred, and ultimately fuel violence. 
This panel will explore how social media can be harnessed more effectively for peacebuilding purposes and assess human-rights-based and conflict-sensitive policy responses to harmful disinformation campaigns.

Moderator: Samantha Bradshaw, Fellow, Stanford Internet Observatory, Cyber Policy Center

Speakers:

Robert Rydberg, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden

Daniel Braun, Deputy Head of Cabinet of Vera Jourova, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency

Miranda Sissons, Director of Human Rights, Facebook

Maria Ressa, Journalist, Author and CEO of Rappler

Teresa Ribeiro, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media

Live streamed session

16.00–17.15 CEST Children’s rights and the triple nexus: The need for collective engagement in Central Sahel

Save the Children

The key to achieving children’s rights in the Sahel region is coherent and collective engagement between actors in the region. This session will explore how activities aimed at building social cohesion and resilience among conflict-affected communities in Central Sahel can contribute to ensuring children have the right to learn, thrive and be protected. This session is targeted at government representatives, international organizations, academia and aid practitioners who seek to deepen their understanding of actionable avenues of operationalizing the humanitarian–development–peace nexus in complex crises. Online session

16.00–17.15 CEST Bringing peacebuilding home: Building and sustaining peace in Europe

Berghof Foundation & Life & Peace Institute 

Participants will explore the importance of engaging in peacebuilding in Western European societies and discuss the approaches that are already in use to build peace at home, but that might not be labelled as such. The pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have exacerbated long-standing tensions in and across Europe relating to governance, rule of law, inequality and exclusion. These cast doubt on the substance and sustainability of ‘peace’ in heartland Europe and make peacebuilding an explicit imperative there. Join this session to learn from United States and global south peacebuilding experiences and hear about opportunities for further exchange, cooperation and learning. Online session

16.00–17.15 CEST How do we reach gender parity in civilian crisis management?

CMC Finland, European CoE for Civilian Crisis Management & Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Join a roundtable aiming to push forward policy discussions on how to address gender imbalances and move towards gender parity in civilian crisis management missions. The focus will be on what multilateral organizations and their member states can do, in particular the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Online session

17.30–18.30 CEST Halving global violence with innovative coalitions and resources

Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies 

This interactive panel will put a spotlight on innovative violence prevention and reduction solutions that were highly effective during the pandemic. It will highlight how international networks with ambitious goals can help catalyse action for peace and attempts to identify innovative financing mechanisms to match the ambition to halve global violence by 2030.  Online session

17.30–18.30 CEST Can peace be built from a distance? Effective and conflict-sensitive digital peacebuilding

International Alert

The panel discussion will analyse the global Covid-19 response and how limited face-to-face contact has forced peacebuilders globally to adapt. The panel adopts a forward-looking focus by developing recommendations on how to ensure digital peacebuilding is safe, inclusive, ethical, conflict sensitive and gender sensitive. Online session

17.30–18.45 CEST Democratic backsliding in the OSCE region and police–society relations

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Over the past decade the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) region has witnessed a democratic backslide in a number of its member states. Democratic backsliding involves the weakening of political institutions, the erosion of rule of law and the decline in quality of democracy. And there has been further consolidation of power by autocratic authorities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Police are typically one of the most visible representatives of state power. This session will examine the impact of the erosion of democracy on policing and police–society relations in selected OSCE member states. Online session

17.30–18.45 CEST The Future of Peacebuilding: Climate-related Security Risks and Peacebuilding Efforts in Mali

Climate-related security risks are transforming the security landscape in which multilateral peacebuilding efforts take place. Indeed, by December 2020, 80 per cent of UN multilateral peace operations personnel were deployed in countries ranked as most exposed to climate change. While the human security risks of today are increasingly becoming the hard security challenges of tomorrow, the solutions are not solely or even primarily military. To better prepare for and adequately respond to what are increasingly complex contexts, the Permanent Mission of Mali to the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations, in co-operation with SIPRI, are co-organizing a roundtable discussion that provides a chance to discuss the challenges of peacebuilding in Mali in a climate changing world. At the event, SIPRI will present exclusive insights into its new study, Climate-related Security Risks and Peacebuilding in Mali, followed by a discussion on challenges and suggestions on how to make peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts in the Mali more climate-sensitive. The discussion will be a unique element of the 2021 Virtual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development as Permanent Representatives to the UN in New York will be invited to discuss the report and its recommendations. 

Moderator

Anna Karin Eneström, Sweden’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Speakers

Robert Rydberg, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden

El-Ghassim Wane, Special Representative of the Secretary-General

Dan Smith, Director, SIPRI

Issa Konfourou, Mali Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Joanne Adamson, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General (Political), MINUSMA

Online session

17.30–18.45 CEST Food security, stabilization and tackling trade-offs: Reconciling WFP’s mission with a principled approach to peace

World Food Programme 

This panel will facilitate exchange on best practices, lessons learned, differences, and commonalities in how an organization as WFP with a large humanitarian footprint can contribute to improving the prospects for peace. The roundtable will reflect on the trade-offs involved in applying a principled approach to peace, and the challenges linked to work in settings where the operational space is often shared with actors pursuing military objectives. Online session

19.00–20.00 CEST Friend or foe? Emerging technologies and conflict early warning in the age of compound risk

Center on International Cooperation NYU

Learn about the opportunities and threats associated with emerging technologies and data-driven approaches for conflict early warning and action in the age of compound risk. In particular we will ask what risks emanate from biased, incomplete or low-quality data? What other ethical challenges are linked to merging data-driven methodologies, peacebuilding and prevention? Online session

19.00–20.00 CEST ReNEWing the deal

Institute for State Effectiveness, Nordic Consulting Group, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

The New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.  We’ve learned a lot about aid delivery and the world has changed significantly.  This will be a forward-looking, Chatham House Rule, closed-door conversation with experts on what we’ve learned and how to re-imagine development partnerships.  We particularly welcome new, youth and developing country perspectives. Online session