Building Resilience in the Eastern Neighbourhood (BREN)

Societies in the South Caucasus and Moldova face a range of systemic internal and external threats, including protracted conflicts leading to internally displaced people. These conflicts have a disproportionate impact on women and other marginalised groups, yet their voices are often excluded in security and stabilisation processes.

The BREN project builds on IWPR and GNWP’s regional experience to support these excluded voices and build resilience among civil society (CSO) and women’s rights organisations (WRO) to foster peace, security and stability for all. In the past year, GNWP conducted an in-depth analysis of peacebuilding processes and women’s organisations across the Eastern Neighbourhood to inform BREN’s approach.

The BREN project is designed to:

• Strengthen the effectiveness of CSOs, including WROs, to counter the drivers of conflict, instability, and insecurity; and 
• Establish an environment where state actors ensure better access to justice for CSOs and recognise their legitimacy in strategic planning on peace and security overall.

The project activities include:

• Awarding grants to CSOs and WROs to support projects to increase the participation of women in the peace and security processes across the region, and to improve legal frameworks to protect the rights of LGBTQI+ groups, ethnic and religious minorities in Georgia. In addition, a Rapid Response Mechanism will provide grants to Moldovan organisations for conflict prevention, community recon- ciliation, and relief and recovery;
• Providing technical assistance through training and mentoring to build the capacity and strengthen the resilience of CSOs and WROs; and 
• Facilitating sustained multi-stakeholder national and regional networks and engagement, including among CSOs and WROs, government, media, and other influential individuals and entities.