Over the past 25 years CJP has benefitted from a number of amazing funding partnerships. We were twice awarded a contract to host Fulbright students from South Asia and the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. And as you note, you were the beneficiary of funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that paid for women from your region to earn a graduate certificate while building relationships with other women peacebuilding leaders from your area.

These kinds of funding opportunities run in cycles and are subject to changes in funder focus and budget disruptions outside of our control. Absent a very large endowment , CJP is unable to continue running these kinds of programs without a funding agency.

I have learned two lessons from our efforts to find new funding when a program is not continued by the funding agency. First, finding the funding is always some form of serendipity. We are standing in the right place having the right conversations when someone who controls a pot of money has a great idea that matches our mission, vision, and capacity. Basically, these things happen when we are able to help someone else realize their vision.. Second, and the really good news in my view, is that with each of these activities we learn how to do things better and are therefore, better able to respond when someone is looking for help.

The Fulbright cohort program and WPLP are a good example of this. Fulbright wanted to create regional networks of peacebuilding leaders. We learned that a strong network will not emerge simply by educating individuals in the same program. So, with WPLP we designed the program very carefully to support the creation of a network that would sustain itself. We are seeing evidence of success. WPLP graduates worked with others who have attended CJP to create Daima Amani Women’s Network (DAWN) /now/peacebuilder/2017/09/wplp-graduates-in-kenya-form-womens-peacebuilding-network/.

I find this very exciting. And I think the next phase in our work probably includes having groups of graduates such as the members of DAWN identify a need, find the money, and come to us if we can help them. Perhaps DAWN could even promote a project similar to what CJP did with the University of Hargeisa (/now/peacebuilder/2008/08/somaliland-exchange-fosters-peace/) as part of building capacity at Garissa University.

We may never recreate WPLP in its original form, but we are using what we learned about educating individuals while building networks for effective action to improve our programs and to let others know how we can help them. Based on my experiences at CJP since 2001, I think the key to CJP success has been our capacity to be adaptive, be prepared, and be ready to say yes to opportunities to promote peacebuilding leadership wherever that need is identified.