CMI MARTTI AHTISAARI PEACE FOUNDATION

CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation is an independent Finnish organisation that advances peace processes in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eurasia and Asia. CMI was born out of Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari’s vision that all conflicts can be resolved, and CMI have since grown to be a leader in the field of international peacemaking. CMI’s team consists of more than 100 international experts and over 300 global partners from a variety of fields with whom we have advanced more than 50 peace processes. In 2020 CMI supported 10 peace processes in 10 different countries.

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Conflict resolution and peace mediation are integral parts of foreign and security policy, and of development policy in general. Without peace and stability, there can be no meaningful development. Also, preventing and solving conflicts at their roots is always the most cost-efficient option, offering substantial rewards for modest financial investment. Amid the modern complexity of conflicts and fragmentation of peace processes, there is a growing need for independent actors with broad networks and proven expertise – such as CMI.

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In 2020, the Foundation supported CMI’s work in a world shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic: countries at risk of conflict or already in conflict needed additional support to maintain peace processes. During the crisis, CMI successfully increased dialogue and kept the channels between various parties to conflict open. It did this via virtual tools and platforms, which also eased the parties’ participation in the work. CMI reached more people in 2020 than in previous years. CMI also collaborated with local actors, for example in Libya and Palestine, on communication, prediction and analysis of the impact of the pandemic.​