Peace Villages: Women Leading Peace in Indonesia

A Peace Village is a women-led initiative to promote peaceful and resilient communities.

In order to become a Peace Village, members within a community commit to promoting and fostering tolerance and peace within their communities. Starting with making peace within the family, members then agree on guidelines to enhance social cohesion in the community. 

The idea of Peace Villages was conceived by UN Women and the Wahid Foundation, an Indonesian non-governmental organization. Peace Villages was implemented under UN Women’s regional programme “Empowered Women, Peaceful Communities”, funded by the Government of Japan. The purpose of Peace Villages was to respond to an increase in violent extremist attacks by preventing radicalisation and recruitment by violent extremist organisations by mobilising the entire community, especially women, to promote social cohesion.

This book presents snapshots of life and stories from the nine original Peace Villages, as captured throughout the first half of 2019.