Understanding PeaceTech: A think piece to support the development of Peace Analytics

Author: Andy Carl

First commissioned in 2016, this ‘think piece’ examines how technologies can and are being used in efforts to build and sustain peace.

The paper delves into what PeaceTech is, how it is different from other types of ‘tech’, and what it means for the future of peacebuilding. The paper gives examples of ten organisations doing groundbreaking work in the PeaceTech space, before offering a framework for understanding PeaceTech and snapshots of innovation. The paper then goes on to list potential challenges, such as issues around access, digital literacy, ethics and marketplace competition, and ends by discussing future opportunities for PeaceTech to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Peace Analytics Series

PeaceRep’s Peace Analytics Series features the research methodology underlying the PeaceTech innovations of the PeaceRep programme.

The series includes: data scoping research; ‘how to’ discussions relating to particular challenges in the field of visualisations and geocoding; and other proof-of-concept tech-based innovations, such as the use of natural language processing. It is intended to present the methodologies and decisions behind our PeaceTech digital research, to make it transparent, and to contribute to establishing a new research digital infrastructure in the field of peace and conflict studies, by supporting others to reuse and repurpose our methodologies and findings.