Fireside Peace Chat – Civil Society and Peace, in Sri Lanka and the World

Join us for the next edition in the Fireside Peace Chats (FPC) series, titled “Civil Society and Peace, in Sri Lanka and the World”. In this session, we welcome Sweta Velpillay, a peacebuilding practitioner whose work focuses on creating alternative and equitable forms of global collaboration for peace. Sweta brings extensive experience advising peacebuilding programmes and portfolios for relevance and coherence, with work spanning countries including Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, and the UK (Northern Ireland).

Originally from Sri Lanka, Sweta will reflect on her personal journey and evolving understanding of what it means to be part of civil society and committed to peace. Drawing from her current role at the international NGO Conducive Space for Peace, she will speak about the dilemmas, tensions, and questions that have shaped her path in the peacebuilding field.

This edition of FPC will be, as usual, an open and honest conversation — touching on the situation in Sri Lanka, the global state of civil society, and what it truly takes to hold space for peace in today’s world. Sweta’s reflections will be grounded in real-world practice, and the session will include time for dialogue and shared exploration.

Come ready to listen, reflect, and engage in a meaningful exchange.

More About the Speaker:

Sweta Velpillay, the Co-Director of Conducive Space for Peace (CSP), holds 19 years of experience in peacebuilding within fragile contexts grappling with humanitarian and development challenges. Through the years, she has worked for and with international NGOs, bilateral donors, UN agencies, and local organisations in diverse roles such as conflict advisor, program manager, facilitator, and trainer. At CSP, she leverages her understanding of the intricate dynamics of the global peacebuilding and aid system, recognising their limitations in relation to centring local leadership, towards transformative change of the system.

Moderator: Sever Džigurski

More about Fireside Peace Chats

The Fireside Peace Chats series is an event series consisting of informal, intimate chats with peacebuilders who have either lived in for an extended period of time or are from conflict-affected environments. Fireside Peace Chats are a joint initiative of Leiden University College The Hague (LUC), Knowledge Platform for Security and Rule of the Law (KPSRL), and The Hague Humanity Hub (THHH), with an aim to open a space where practice, research and policy in peacebuilding come together in an informal way, through experience of people on the ground. This initiative aims to contribute to a locally informed paradigm shift in liberal peacebuilding.

Please note the following important information:

By registering, you agree to your registration information being shared, one time only, with the partner organizations for this event: Leiden University College (LUC) and the Knowledge Platform for Security and Rule of Law (KPSRL).

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