"At the 7th EU Community of Practice on Peace Mediation (EUCoP25) in Brussels, Senior Researcher David Wood joined Ahmad Sheikh, Sidi and Edward Jackson to share insights from a three-year, EU-funded Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) project supporting Track II coordination in Yemen. The session compared experiences from Yemen and Syria, exploring lessons learned on the coordination of peace efforts and how to foster engagement between Track I and Track II mediators. 

Reflecting on the broader exchange, David shared:

"It takes a lot of effort for national peace organisations to be seen as valuable by mandated T1 mediators, who tend to see international organisations as more relevant. Ahmed gave a powerful example of how this only changed in Syria after a multi-year effort by CCSD and other Syrian organisations." 

Some interesting points from the discussion, which involved mediators from a range of contexts:

• Effective coordination depends on the willingness of mandated T1 mediators to engage with the wider peace mediation community, which may require external political and donor pressure.
• If the T1 process is stalled or failing, mandated T1 mediators may be more willing to engage with T2 efforts, but only if they see the benefits of such engagement for reigniting peace talks.
• Those doing the coordination also need a mandate from both national and international peace mediators. This can be hard to achieve if the coordinator also does separate mediation work.
• Distrust and competition for funding inhibits coordination for peace across a range of contexts. These concerns need to be carefully navigated.
• To be relevant, coordination needs to be practical to concrete T2 initiatives, while also allowing for discussion of ‘the bigger picture’ that supports moves towards a cohesive and collective strategy for peace.

Special acknowledgement goes to Maëlys Glück for her central role in this project. The CCDP also thanks the European Union for its support of this work in Yemen and for facilitating Ahmad's participation in Brussels.