This report summarizes the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform’s activities and achievements in 2015. The year saw a positive start to the implementation of the Platform’s 2015-2017 Programme with significant evolution in major event series and targeted networking among non-traditional peacebuilding actors, especially at the city level and with the business community. Key highlights of 2015 are:

• Network growth: The Platform’s contact database grew by 33% from 3’186 in 2014 to 4’233 in 2015 (see Table 1). This growth resulted from drawing larger participation across 18 events in 2015 and closer collaboration with partners from International Geneva and beyond. Overall, a total of 4’572 participants attended events under the umbrella of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (including all Geneva Peace Week events). 2’017 participants attended events organized or co-organized by the Platform. There were over 1’000 registrations for the Geneva Peace Talks and almost 3’000 for Geneva Peace Week (see Table 2).
• Consolidation of event series: With the 3rd edition of the Geneva Peace Talks, the 2nd edition of Geneva Peace Week and the 8th Annual Meeting, and 7 update events, the Platform and its event partners consolidated important contributions to Geneva’s events calendar in the peacebuilding field.
• Practical innovation: The Platform advanced innovation on peacebuilding by focusing on practice. It launched the White Paper on Peacebuilding and 20 background papers, and two papers on conflict prevention – or its failure – in Kenya and the Central African Republic. It also advanced work on an integrated approach on urban safety and peacebuilding practice, and on conflict-sensitive business.
• Increased recognition: The Platform receives an increasingly broader recognition “for providing an important umbrella for Geneva-based peace activities all year round” as noted by Michael Møller, Director-General of UNOG, in his closing remarks of Geneva Peace Week 2015. The launch of the White Paper on Peacebuilding, the Geneva Peace Talks, and Geneva Peace Week, as well as the peacebuilding updates fostered this recognition.
• Modest budget, collective action: All Platform activities in 2015 were implemented on the modest resource base of a budget of CHF 225’000. All activities involved intensive collaboration of its four core partners who demonstrated leadership in selected activities, as well as many other partners from Geneva and beyond. The collaborative way of working has become a trademark of Platform activities and emphasizes the value of combining existing resources, skills and expertise to obtain a better outcome than any institution would achieve on its own.
• An emerging ‘Geneva lens’ on peacebuilding? Activities in 2015 have consistently emphasized that each and every person, actor and institution has a role to play in building peace, and that it is important to work outside the silos that all-too-often characterize the international community to enable more creative responses in a variety of contexts. These two elements emerge as parts of a lens on peacebuilding practice that distinguishes Geneva from other policy capitals such as New York, Washington D.C., Brussels, or Vienna.