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ACTION Asia has its roots in the program and projects of Responding to Conflict (RTC), a British-based non-profit organization which over the past ten years has annually hosted the Working with Conflict course. It is a course aimed at enabling people to reflect on their experiences of peace building and conflict transformation. Consequently, after ten years, there are a vast number of people who have experience of this course all over the world. In Africa, past participants of the Working With Conflict course formed a network today well known as Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA), based in Nairobi, Kenya. Our vision ACTION Asia is network of individuals and organizations in the Asia continent committed to action for conflict transformation through the sharing of skills, knowledge, experiences and resources. ACTION Asia carries a vision of a world of justice and peace, where basic needs are met and dignity and human rights are respected.

Our goals

	To generate a pool of resources for peace in our organizations and communities.
	To create a space for reflection and sharing of information, resources, experiences and learning.
	To nurture and energize one another in a supportive network and to promote linkages and solidarity with others working on conflict transformation.
	To address conflict at different levels, through non-violent means and promote good governance.
	To contextualize work on conflict transformation in the region.

Our values

	Justice, equity, peace and active non-violence
	Openness, accountability and transparency
	Tolerance, compassion and respect for human dignity
	Co-operation and commitment
	Celebration of diversity
	Conscientization and inclusiveness

Following the steps of COPA, ACTION Asia has sought to bring together past participants of the Working with Conflict course from the Asia Pacific region, in order to provide ongoing support, follow up trainings and to more fully contextualize learning on peace building and conflict transformation. It is the intention of ACTION Asia to include in its membership others who work for peace in the region, particularly those working at grassroots and middle levels of conflict.

ACTION Asia is also a child of the international network ACTION. ACTION brings together conflict transformation and peace practitioners to share learning from their work ‘at the coalface’ and to share it with others. ACTION has initially funded the formation of an Asia Pacific network, and continues to support it in other ways. (See Appendix One)

ACTION Asia hopes not only to be a network which serves the people of the Asia Pacific region but also those seeking peace in other places. It is envisaged, that in areas such as interfaith dialogue, ACTION Asia and the African network of COPA have much to learn from each other. Colleagues and associates in the Americas have already expressed interest in exchange visits between the regions around issues such as insurgency.


ACTION-ASIA has been strategically organized to focus on conflict issues affecting several countries within the continent. The network is a continental structure supported by ACTION-International with core group members from all over the world (please see Appendix A).

At present, ACTION Asia is sustained by five core group members from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Philippines. The secretariat and communication center is based in Cambodia while financial transactions are coursed through the Center for Human Development in Sri Lanka.

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