Improving the security situation for people living in fragile and conflict-affected settings is often an immediate priority for stabilization. However, stabilization efforts must also provide a long-term vision for sustainable peace. The 2019 Stockholm Forum will confront the dilemmas that arise in compromising between short-term demands and strategic visions. By addressing these predicaments, the Stockholm Forum will inform how humanitarian assistance, security response, development cooperation and peacebuilding can synergize with each other. In turn, this can create more effective national action and international support in fragile contexts.

Generally speaking, there are two sets of communities that work on ‘stabilization’. On one side; national actors, security practitioners and policymakers, and on the other; diplomats and aid workers engaged in humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peacebuilding. The Stockholm Forum aims to bridge this divide by bringing together forward-looking thought leaders from different communities to foster dialogue. The Stockholm Forum will also be an opportunity to prepare for the United Nations High Level Political Forum in New York in July 2019 that will review Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 16.

This year’s Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development is designed to challenge conventional wisdom in all development sectors. Small, deep-dive workshops and roundtables will present a specific challenge and explore solutions.

Following the 2018 Stockholm Forum format, a Public ‘Open Day’ (14 May) will be followed by two invitation-only ‘Focus Days’ (15–16 May).

[This information originally appeared on sipri.org]