Name of the organization/initiative and year of foundation

Centre of Public Initiatives “Ideas for Change” (IfC) was founded in November 2015, it started its full-fledged activity in January 2017.

Mission

Transformation of the Ukrainian society from survival values to self-development and actualization values at the national and local levels.

Actions and projects in the context of armed conflict

The organization implements dialogue and peacebuilding projects aimed at the conflict settlement in Donbas, i.e., confidence-building among the representatives of different regions and communities; identifying the potential actors for peaceful development in the region; enhancing women’s capacities according to the UN Resolution #1325 “Women, peace, and security”.

In 2019, the project “Joint History Textbook – 2090” was implemented resulting in the publication of the “Common and Different: Research of Narratives in the Public Consciousness of Ukraine, Germany, and Russia”, developed by experts from academic institutions, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and the media of three countries. The project developed an innovative online dialogue tool that allows many users to work together on the same text, based on consensus.

As part of the project “Women, Peace, and Security: A Chance for Georgia’s and Ukraine’s Protracted Conflicts?” (2019), five analytical documents concerning specific aspects of “Women, peace, and security” were published; a number of seminars and a research conferences were organized.

“Women’s Initiatives for Peace in Donbas” (2017 – 2022) is also an important project, which is being implemented through close partnership with the German NGO OWEN – Mobile Academy of Gender Democracy and Peacebuilding (Berlin, Germany) and the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights “Women of Don” (Novocherkassk, Russia). The project creatively combines the areas of peacebuilding and women’s activism using the methods of dialogue and diapraxis. During the project’s implementation, seven dialogue meetings and one online assembly were held, more than 30 joint mini-initiatives were implemented belonging by the project participants. In November 2018, a presentation of the WIPD and an expert discussion “From Dialogue to Common Actions: Is It Possible to Overcome the Public Split in the Conflict in Donbas?” took place in Kyiv.