We want to provide an engaging vision of peace that, coupled with policy analysis and practical recommendations, inspires and maximizes the actions of others. With a reputation for reliability and integrity, plus expertise in evidence-based research, policy development, and collaboration, Project Ploughshares is well placed to provide civil society leadership in Canada on international peace and disarmament issues. To achieve this objective, Project Ploughshares commits to finding significant new resources that will expand its ability to build relationships and communicate its mission through traditional as well as new and specialized forms of media.
Priorities:
- Build an evidence-based case that supports and demonstrates the position that Canada can and should be a global leader in the effort to build sustainable peace, and advances a role for civil society organizations such as Project Ploughshares in supporting Canada in this work on the international stage.
- Translate research findings into timely and innovative communication vehicles that inform and inspire various constituencies, including academics, youth, faith groups, civil society organizations, government policymakers, and the Canadian public.
- Increase internal capacity – human and technical – so that Project Ploughshares is better able to provide real-time and widely accessible research and policy alternatives in response to emerging crises and other developments that relate to Project Ploughshares programs.
- Maintain and expand key program areas related to nuclear disarmament, outer space security, conventional weapons controls, emerging military technologies, and the protection of civilians. Be mindful of, and draw linkages to, cross-cutting issues that intersect with these concerns, such as the global climate emergency, the plight of forced migrants, and the gender implications of armed violence.
Project Ploughshares is a member of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement (CPA) at Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo. Our presence on one university campus and proximity to another – Wilfrid Laurier University – present constant opportunities for partnerships and collaborations with academic researchers and students. Close proximity and long-standing ties with the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Centre for International Governance Innovation offer even more. By building on this local base, Ploughshares can create national and international networks.
Priorities:
- Pursue collaborations with faculty, students, and research centres at academic institutions across Canada that allow access to academic infrastructures, finances, and programs.
- Be a firm and evidence-based civil society voice for arms control and disarmament efforts in collaborative networks with academic partners.
- Advance toward a professionalized, highly regarded and competitive student internship program that expands the present capacity of Ploughshares and engages a younger constituency.
Canada needs the support of an informed and engaged citizenry if it is to engage more constructively in matters of global security and contribute to positive policy development at international forums. Working with likeminded organizations, Project Ploughshares can help to support and educate such a citizenry. Adapting in real time to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ploughshares has adopted an expanded range of communication technologies and is now better prepared to respond to the rapidly changing contexts in which disarmament and peace animation must often be undertaken. Ploughshares is also familiar with the humanitarian focus that is increasingly being used to animate the content of traditional arms control and disarmament campaigns and is able to apply that focus in materials it provides for its audiences.
Priorities:
- Animate Canadians’ deeply held commitment to peacebuilding and disarmament through a clearly defined communications strategy and a strong, professional online presence that capitalize on the opportunities offered by new technologies and communication channels.
- Strengthen existing partnerships and pursue new ones that build public awareness and momentum for change in Canada and beyond.
- Employ the humanitarian rationale used to advance multilateral instruments to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons, ratify and implement the Arms Trade Treaty, and ban landmines and cluster munitions in campaigns to control or ban new weapons systems such as drones and autonomous weapons.
- Strengthen the relationship of Project Ploughshares with Canadian churches and national and international ecumenical leaders. Project Ploughshares should be the go-to source of policy advice for faith-based organizations, which, in turn, can provide us with valuable perspectives on non-violent conflict resolution, peacemaking, and encouraging cultures of peace.
Since its founding, Project Ploughshares has built an enviable reputation among Canadian churches and civil society partners as a trusted organization that steadfastly pursues peace and disarmament. But it faces real challenges in the next five years.
Ploughshares needs to grow its individual donor base, which is the source of its core operational funding. As well, the federal government’s diminished interest in policy dialogue has shut the door to much of our project funding. We must locate new funding partners, which will likely be academic-related and/or international funders.
Canada’s national churches and church organizations have always supported Ploughshares financially and in other ways. But that support has been shrinking. The churches and their still-vital constituencies must be persuaded to support in a significant way Canada’s premier voice for peace and disarmament issues.
For Project Ploughshares to continue its essential work to remain a leader in its field in international peace and security, it must meet these combined challenges of governance, funding, and program delivery.
Priorities:
- Maintain a robust governance structure that aligns supporting the needs of constituencies and fundraising with appropriate oversight and governance.
- Ensure the alignment of organizational resources and capacities to effectively meet strategic objectives and related program plans for research and policy recommendations, as well as public engagement and animation activities.
- Establish a Development Committee to review existing fundraising methods, critically analyze potential new approaches to fundraising, and make recommendations for revenue diversification and expansion.
