FHI 360: Supporting Networks for Peace

Identity-based violence and hate speech are rising across South and Southeast Asia, amplified online and increasingly organised along ethnic and religious lines. The organisations working to counter this, from interfaith networks to digital rights groups, often do so in isolation and lack the support to magnify their impact.

Networks for Peace, funded by USAID and implemented by FHI 360, uses its regional convening power to engage and support civil society organisations and key influencers in advancing tolerance and peaceful coexistence. A programme like that needs communication that serves many audiences at once: donors, partners, media and the public, across sensitive contexts.

Ruder Finn Era's Thailand team was selected as the long-term communications partner of FHI 360 for the project, supporting communications strategy and planning as well as coordination and implementation.

The work translates a complex regional programme into material each audience can use: reporting and materials for donors at USAID, media-facing factsheets and information, and regular newsletters documenting partner activity, from gender equality and social inclusion sessions in Myanmar to workshops on countering dangerous speech in Thailand and partner meetings with visiting United States officials. The consistent thread is careful framing, so that visibility for the network never puts its partners at risk.