The Hague Humanity Hub hosted its first Meetup on behalf of its newly established Community on Climate, Peace and Justice on May 27th. The launch of this first event created a unique space for about 50 professionals working on climate, peace and justice to come together, identifying overlaps and shared motivations. The goal of this community is to build an active network of professionals working at the intersection of climate, peace, and justice in The Hague, fostering collaboration and leveraging each other’s expertise to create greater collective impact.
The Hague is globally recognized as a city where changemakers from diverse backgrounds come together to work on causes of peace, justice, and increasingly climate action. These crucial areas are not just independent fields; they are intrinsically interlinked and interdependent. Climate change exacerbates conflicts, disrupts social justice, and undermines peace efforts worldwide. The international city of Peace and Justice hosts a diverse array of organisations dedicated to addressing these interconnected issues.
At the Humanity Hub, we recognise an opportunity to harness the collective knowledge and expertise of these professionals and organisations to foster meaningful connections and knowledge sharing. We believe that by connecting diverse perspectives and sectors, gaps can be identified and effective collaborations can be built to address the complex challenges at the intersection of climate, peace, and justice.
Bringing the community together
Together with facilitator and fellow Hub member Laura de Franchis, we coordinated the meet-up using the Open Space Technology (OST) format. OST is a facilitating methodology that invites each participant to bring a topic to a meeting agenda. Participants then select and decide collectively which topics should be discussed during the meeting, and afterwards, break out in groups to discuss the decided-upon topics.
This facilitation model not only increased motivation and the ownership of ideas between its participants, but it also helped us as initiators identify the topics relevant to the community.
A wide array of topics explored
The discussions ranged from local impact strategies and interdisciplinary knowledge sharing to the imperativeness of climate justice and institutional upgrades for a sustainable future. Each breakout session, led by experts in their fields, delved into pressing topics such as regional coalition-building, behavioural change through storytelling, and the role of international law in shaping new paradigms for climate governance. Attendees identified actionable steps and made connections that they plan to employ in their work moving forward.
Participants took the lead on facilitating each session based on their proposed ideas and with the rest of the group’s support. These themes reflect the current cross-sectoral work of the participants, also mapping their shared areas of interest and engagement relating to climate, peace and justice.
Breakouts were held on the following topics:
- Building The Hague / Regional Doughnut Coalition
- Cross-Sectional Local Impact
- Real Knowledge Sharing Exchange (Interdisciplinary / Intersectoral)
- Building a Community on Climate, Peace, & Justice
- How to bridge from The Hague on: Nationalism, Military / Security, Interfaith Cooperation
- What about nature?
- Climate Justice: Behavioural change – New Narratives and Storytelling
- CoP 29: Who, What, How?
- International Law and Justice: Institutional upgrades for new climate, peace and security paradigms
What’s next
This first community meetup event was a success measured by the number of engaged participants and the prevalent desire to remain connected: to one another and to the growing community. Not only do such community events help highlight and align the shared goals of those working across the intersection of climate, peace, and justice, they also help unlock the potential for increased collective impact.
There were several follow up actions identified at the end of the event, and with the support of the Humanity Hub and several motivated participants, these steps are being propelled forward as we continue to discover the role and impact that this community can have in The Hague and beyond.
On September 18, a roundtable on the interlinkage between climate and law enforcement is being organised in collaboration with The Hague Roundtable on Climate and Security, the Hague University of Applied Sciences and the Hague Humanity Hub. Titled Climate Chaos and Law Enforcement, this event will be an interactive dialogue on strategies for cooperation with civil populations in climate-related challenges. You can find out more about participating here.
Later this year in November, the Hague’s annual Impact Fest will be the occasion to bring together and expand this community and engage with the broader impact ecosystem of social entrepreneurs, NGOs, investors, startups, and other changemakers. Stay tuned for more information about the sessions focusing on climate, peace and justice. You can already get your early bird ticket here.
In parallel, the community is working on preparing for COP 29 in Azerbaijan. We will share any chance for interaction and exchange on this as soon as possible. Stay tuned as well for the next edition of our Blue Drinks networking series focusing on water issues – you can subscribe and follow our eventbrite page to be notified.
There will be more exciting meetups and opportunities to contribute and learn from in the coming months. Do you want to become part of this community, share or propose your initiative and stay in the loop about climate related initiatives? Drop us a line at programming@humanityhub.net!