Conflict in the name of religion is a fact of life for many today. From terrorist attacks against media, to the chilling rhetoric of violent organisations, the media is flooded with examples of people who use religion as a way to legitimize violence. But, no one knows of the of peacemakers working around the globe towards a more stable future. All over the world, people are motivated by their religious beliefs to pursue peace.

KAICIID’s Peace Mapping Project (PMP) makes those peacemakers visible. Through a database that maps dialogue activities all over the world, the PMP will make this information available to the wider public as of April 2015. The PMP acknowledges and documents, on the one hand, existing tensions and conflicts in the name of religion and on the other, the numerous actions seeking to bridge differences through interreligious dialogue. In its second stage, the project will add individual ‘dialogue stories’, local case studies, and detailed analyses to the project.

The PMP is intended to develop into a tool for students, researchers, policymakers, dialogue experts and practitioners to learn about several hundred organisations that are committed to interreligious dialogue. The PMP is more than an atlas that illustrates the relationship between religion, conflict and peace. In the medium term, the project will explain what makes interreligious dialogue intervention a unique, efficient, and sustainable path for peaceful coexistence. This will be a free, universally accessible tool, as well as a way to assess conflicts and design responsive actions.

When presented to experts and activists who work with these organizations on a daily basis, the Organizations Directory was hailed as a tool that will change the way that experts see, understand and interact with one another, as the Peace Map provides a visual means of seeing who is working in the field of interfaith dialogue peacebuilding around the globe. It will be able to connect experts for professional and personal goals to exchange expertise and knowledge, and develop a better understanding of where there are gaps that still need to be filled. 

The Peace Mapping Project is the first of its kind to link interreligious dialogue to geographical indicators, which shows global peacebuilding instead of global conflict. Over 80% of international organizations engaged in IRD activities do also engage in peace making and peace building efforts. This tool shows ongoing developments in Interreligious dialogue organizations, and shows how religion is part of the solution of peace and capacity building.

The Directory is currently looking for organizations that are active in Africa. This database is an integral part of KAICIID’s Peace Mapping Project, and will provide information about IRD activities as well as their contact information in a searchable, intuitive and interactive way. This database will help develop a better picture of these activities taking place around the world. The map will illustrate where there are areas of conflict and tension and IRD is already taking place, or where there is a gap.

A public source for policy makers, civil society and education professionals who are interested in Interreligious Dialogue. There are currently 220 Interreligious Dialogue organization listed in KAICIID’s directory, and this list will continue to expand after its official launch in April 2015. The seven language areas covered by the database include English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic.

The IRD Organizations Directory finds its users among policy makers, academic researchers, civil society and educational professionals interested in the IRD field and IRD activities around the world. The Database will produce a unique tool for IRD organisations to support networking, save time in IRD data mining, and increased understanding of the large variety and numbers of the IRD activities that are happening around the world right now.

As a part of the PMP, it will allow the user to put the IRD activities into a context of global vulnerabilities to instability and conflict and to understand in which aspects and parts of the world IRD efforts can make a significant difference.