The Middle East Peace Partnership Act (MEPPA), administered by USAID and created by an act of Congress in Dec 2020, awarded significant funding to WWP and WOS to train women in peace activism. The focus is on climate and religions, two major issues that are very critical to promoting peace. However, people involved in these issues commonly don’t act in the context of peace. MEPPA offers a new paradigm in conflict resolution: instead of relying heavily on diplomats negotiating broad solutions, the fund empowers individuals and promotes cooperation through people-to-people partnerships on the ground.

This project, jointly envisioned and carried out by WWP and WOS, aims to increase the diversity of Israeli and Palestinian women engaged in the peacebuilding process, strengthens the partnership of the two movements and ensures that women are equitably represented in all aspects of negotiation.

WWP and WOS have each selected 30-40 women (in Israel’s case, Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze), many of whom have not previously engaged in the peacebuilding and security debate, to be involved in one of two streams: “religion and peace-building” and “environmentalism and peace-building”. During the initial stage, WWP and WOS work in parallel to one another but at the second stage, the groups will come together.

The women who participate in the training will become ambassadors of peace in their communities and organizations and develop relationships and initiatives with corresponding women on the other side.