Lebanon is a fragile country with a history of severe tensions and civil conflict stemming from sectarian and clan-based competition. Its diverse religious communities have historically experienced conflicts, fueled by a political system that allocates power based on religious affiliation, often leading to political paralysis and rivalry. Such divisions continue to challenge Lebanon’s internal stability and communal unity. As such, through USAID’s Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention, the Community Support Program is implementing People-to-People (P2P) activities, to enable social cohesion and the peaceful resolution of conflict in ten targeted communities. P2P programing includes facilitated dialogues that bring together around 500 representatives from conflicting groups to interact purposefully in safe spaces with the aim of creating a series of interactions that promote mutual understanding, trust, empathy, and resilient social ties. It is expected that 5,000 people will benefit from P2P activities and dialogues through implementing mechanisms of peace building and tension reduction within the targeted communities.

In April 2024, CSP’s local partners, “Beyond Group” and “Peace Labs”, initiated the group dialogues in five communities. On May 15, CSP held a learning session to collect feedback and reflect on implementation progress. During the session, CSP partners presented their findings, reviewed methodologies, discussed challenges, and laid down the way forward on P2P implementation.

“Being a pilot initiative, the P2P program validated many of our theories as Lebanese peacebuilders with over 12 years of experience, namely people’s continued interest in dialogue”, said Ramzi Abou Zeid, Programs Manager at Peace Labs.