Peace In Action, PIA!

Peace in Action (PIA) is a network of today’s generation of peace and development activists, academics and practitioners and other individuals from diverse walks of life. PIA wants to actively face the challenges of our world in crises.

Peace in Action, the international Network for Peace, Development and intercultural Relations is established as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Austria.

Peace in Action aims to motivate and mobilize individuals to take action, and to create momentum in building cultures of peace. Members of PIA are actively involved in projects that raise awareness about the importance of citizen action through community and cultural events, projects, workshops, trainings and independent consulting.

PIA aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the areas of peacebuiling, development and conflict transformation, and stresses the principles of creativity, collaboration and action.

Peacework as understood by PIA is open to a myriad of actors with various aims and means. In this respect, PIA does not give precedence to certain aims or approaches, but instead believes that as long as groups and people are committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence: the unity of aims and means we can always find common ground.

We feel that this enables PIA to authentically affect and direct change at all levels of society (be it directly, structurally or culturally), to raise awareness and to encourage more peace-oriented activities in schools, organizations and communities around the globe.

PIA’s concept of peace is that of open inclusion of actors and their aims, which are traditionally compartmentalized and separated based on the status quo’s set of values. Thus, these initiatives rarely find themselves operating, interacting and working with one another in collaboration and partnership. PIA believes that unifying people and processes oriented toward peace, including both formal (institutions, foundations, organizations, governments, etc.) and informal (loosely or non-affiliated actors, social movements, artists, activists, community groups, etc.) actors will allow us to effect noticeable change.

We need many "peaces"!