Uplift Chosen for Paris Peace Forum’s 2024-2045 Scale-Up Program
This week, Uplift’s Director of Humanitarian Relief, Hila-Nawa Alam, attended the 2024 Paris Peace Forum to meet with leaders and grassroots organizations seeking sustainable solutions to urgent problems around the world.
The Paris Peace Forum (PPF) is an international event that promotes global cooperation and addresses challenges to peace and governance. It brings together a wide range of people, including heads of state, government officials, international organizations, civil society groups, grassroots, tech start-ups, academics, and the private sector, to find and share practical project-based solutions to global problems such as conflict, climate change, inequality, and access to public goods like education and health.
The PPF stands out because it prioritizes grassroots, people-centered solutions, especially from the Global South, to address global challenges. Unlike many high-level gatherings that can remain insular or focused on established top-down perspectives, the PPF actively seeks out and amplifies voices from diverse communities worldwide. This approach fosters an inclusive dialogue that draws attention to innovative solutions emerging from local experiences, aiming to break free from echo chambers and bring fresh, on-the-ground insights into the international policy arena.
We are grateful to have been selected, along with 9 other incredible organizations, to participate in the PPF’s 2024-2025 Scale-up Program (SCUP) to receive mentorship support for our community development and livelihood support projects, in collaboration with our local partner, Community Driven Development Organization (CDDO), in Afghanistan over the next year.
In Hila’s words, “Our community livelihood projects in Afghanistan may not be high-tech, but they are impactful. We focus on empowering communities to drive their own solutions from within based on their needs, and we ensure that no one is left behind in our projects—especially women, children, and other marginalized groups.”
