International Alert is an independent international peacebuilding organization, operating programs around the world to address conflict. Its mission is to build a more peaceful world by: working with people directly affected by conflict to find peaceful solutions; shaping policies and practices to support peace; and collaborating with those striving for peace. Alert accomplishes these goals through dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, advocacy and outreach activities. International Alert is headquartered in London, but also maintains a European office in The Hague. This NGO maintains about 250 staff in nineteen countries. These experts work with over 800 partner organizations on projects to advance conflict resolution, support human rights, and build a more peaceful future. Alert’s main geographic areas of operation are Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but it is also supporting peace activities in Colombia, the Caucasus and Ukraine. Michael Young became Chief Executive Officer in 2019. The chairman of Alert’s Board of Trustees is retired US ambassador Carey Cavanaugh, a former peace mediator.
History
In 1985 the Standing International Forum on Ethnic Conflict, Development and Human Rights was founded with the purpose of addressing the issue of conflict and to alert governments and the world to developing crises. The following year, SIFEC merged with another organization, International Alert on Genocide and Massacres, to become International Alert. Alert was founded in 1986 by Leo Kuper, Michael Young, Martin Ennals and Luis Kutner in response to growing frustration in the international development and human rights community that internal conflicts were impeding the ability to protect and provide for civilian populations and that there was no effective international mechanism to address this situation. International Alert undertook to advance research on the causes of such conflict and to promote all means of conciliation and resolution, becoming an early advocate of multitrack diplomacy. From its first days, the conflict in Sri Lanka was a particular focus. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town was engaged in the formation of the new organization and became Vice Chairman of its Board of Trustees. Martin Ennals, the former Secretary General of Amnesty International and founder of Article 19, served as Secretary General of the new organization. From 1986-1989, Ennals was International Alert’s only full-time staff member. He was joined by Andy Carl (later the founder of Conciliation Resources, who managed IA from 1992-1993 following Ennals’ death. Alert expanded rapidly in 1994-1998 under the leadership of Kumar Rupesinghe, growing to over 50 staff with major programs in Sri Lanka, Burundi, and Sierra Leone. By 1998 Alert had a budget of approximately UK£5 million and 80 staff, managing programs in over 15 countries in conflict. Dan Smith, now Secretary General of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute served as Secretary General from 2003-2015. From 2015-1019, Harriet Lamb, CEO of the United KingdomFairtrade Foundation for over a decade. became International Alert’s CEO. Michael Young formally assumed this leadership role in September 2019 bringing decades of experience in the peacebuilding and humanitarian sectors, most recently with the International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps.
Board Members
International Alert’s board of trustees is composed of the following members: Carey Cavanaugh, Hans Bolscher, Chris Deri, Abir Haj Ibrahim, Padma Jyoti, Oliver Kemp, Lisa L. Rose, Erin Segilia-Chase, and Gregor Stewart. Cavanaugh became board chair in 2018.
Notable initiatives
Data mining for conflict prevention
International Alert was an early advocate for the development of conflict early warning systems. Its work on gender and peacebuilding was important in establishing the necessity of incorporating gender relations and female stakeholders in conflict early warning systems. By the early 1990s, International Alert was using the HURIDOCS database in conjunction with early Internetconferencing systems, to enable it to keep abreast of and interact with "local and international nongovernmental organizations and international experts." Through the mid-1990s, by applying a combination of manual and automated analysis in conjunction with such systems, researchers collaborating with International Alert performed early data mining research, demonstrating the viability of this approach for predicting conflict outcomes and encouraging the development of a website for the African Union's Continental Early Warning System.
In 2001, as part of International Alert's Women Building Peace campaign, the organisation collaborated with the United Nations Development Fund for Women awarded a Millennium Peace Prize for Women.
Peacehack
In 2015 and 2016, International Alert organised a series of hackathons called Peacehack, exploring ways information technology might be used to reduce conflict by discouraging hate speech.
Conflict Café
Conflict Café is designed to champion “peace through food.” First established in 2014 as Conflict Kitchen London, this annual program fosters increased public awareness and understanding of key conflict and peace issues. Each year a pop-up restaurant is set up in London which offers cuisine prepared by chefs from a specific conflict region – Syria, Armenia, Turkey, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Myanmar. For several nights, over these meals, the general public has an opportunity to meet with active peacebuilding practitioners and policymakers and learn firsthand about peoples affected by violent conflict.
