Building for Peace across Iraq, Yemen and Syria:
Nabni Partners Gather in Amman
26-27 October 2026
Nabni partners from Iraq, Syria and Yemen came together for the first Nabni Partners Gathering in Amman on October 26-27, exchanging experiences, challenging assumptions of the Building for Peace approach and exploring how locally led recovery and reconstruction can contribute to sustainable peace.
Bringing together Nabni’s civil society partners from Iraq, Syria and Yemen, alongside representatives from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and KfW Development Bank, the gathering created a space to step away from daily implementation, share practical experiences and collectively reflect on the Facility’s ambitions, challenges and future direction.
What does it take to move beyond funding local projects towards building a genuinely locally led model for peacebuilding, recovery and reconstruction? How can infrastructure, livelihoods and strengthened governance contribute to peace? And what can organisations working across different conflict-affected contexts learn from one another?
Three messages framed the gathering:
- “A model, not just a project.”
Building a different way of working requires patience, experimentation and evidence.
One of the central themes of the gathering was how projects can move beyond conflict-sensitive approaches towards making more deliberate contributions to peacebuilding. A recurring message was that building trust, strengthening inclusion and improving relationships are valuable outcomes, but do not automatically constitute peacebuilding. Projects need to understand the conflict dynamics they seek to influence and identify realistic pathways for contributing to change.
Across discussions on community engagement and relationships with local authorities, partners also challenged the assumption that consultation necessarily translates into ownership. Participants reflected on who represents a community, whose voices are heard and how to create safe, inclusive spaces where people can express their priorities safely across community divides.
Nabni’s model is built around a two-step project implementation process: the co-design phase provided the space for partners to identify the root causes of conflict and address those in designing interventions across over twenty communities in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
- “Keep asking tough questions.”
Constructive criticism, honest feedback and continuous learning are essential to improving the model.
During discussions in the gathering, partners questioned the assumptions underpinning Nabni’s overall Theory of Change and the application of the Building for Peace approach across the different and ever-shifting contexts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen: how can infrastructure serve as an entry point for social cohesion in different settings? How are governance, local ownership and sustainability reflected in the model?
Rather than treating the Theory of Change as a fixed framework, the discussion reinforced the importance of revisiting its assumptions in light of implementation experience and changing contexts.
- “Equitable partnerships mean shared ownership and shared accountability.”
Local leadership requires meaningful decision-making power and resources, alongside mutual responsibility for quality, transparency and results. The gathering also provided an opportunity for partners to learn directly from one another about the practical realities of implementation.
Participants explored what makes partnerships effective and what can undermine them. Trust, mutual respect, complementary expertise and collective responsibility emerged as important strengths. At the same time, partners emphasised the need for clear governance arrangements, strong communication and equitable coordination between partners, within consortia as well as with the Facility and donors.
These conversations reinforced an important aspect: Nabni’s Equitable Partnership principles must be reflected not only in strategic commitments, but also in everyday procedures, decision-making and problem-solving.
Beyond individual sessions, the gathering offered something equally important: an opportunity for organisations working in different countries to connect, discover shared challenges and recognise the value of one another’s experiences and expertise.
Despite their different operating environments, partners identified common questions around sustainability, peace-promotion and conflict sensitivity, local ownership, partnership management and the relationship between community-level interventions and broader peacebuilding processes.
As Nabni partners continue implementing their projects, the experiences and evidence emerging from the ground will be essential to testing and strengthening this model and demonstrating how locally led reconstruction and development can contribute to more sustainable peace.
Post author: Giorgia Nicatore, November 2026