MAP aims to provide a comparative approach on the use of interdisciplinary arts-based practices for peacebuilding in Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Indonesia and Nepal. MAP has the overall goals of first, influencing curricula and approaches to working with in- and out-of-school youth and second, creating structures and modes of communication between youth and policymakers from the local to global. Each country has different histories and approaches to peacebuilding, yet all four have a rich tradition of using cultural forms for dialogue. The selection of the four countries will enable us to explore how pathways to peace may be shaped by diverse political, cultural, religious and linguistic factors, as well as the crosscutting issues of gender and intersecting inequalities, environments and the exclusion of children and youth from policymaking processes. MAP will operate across three core components: a) project design and delivery; b) research; and c) arts-based practice that run throughout three strands of activities. Strand One will involve scoping visits, literature reviews, community mapping and training of adult and child/youth facilitators in arts-based methods for dialogue and research. During Strand Two, up to 3 small grants of £5,000 will be awarded in each of the four countries for child/youth and adult MAP trainers to work alongside CSOs to develop projects that address local issues that may incorporate (but are not limited to): child rights-based decision-making; child protection and peacebuilding. Up to 2 grants of £29,500 in each of the four countries for youth to work alongside policy-focused organisations to explore arts-based communication structures. Up to 4 large grants of £100,000 in each of the four countries for researchers of any level and partnering organisations to design and deliver effective monitoring, evaluation and impact delivery alongside the small and mid-size grant awardees. One additional large grant of £100,000 will be awarded in the final two years of the project to synthesize findings, drawing out similarities and divergences across the four countries and to consider questions of scalability and transferability, in order to inform youth policy at an international level. Strand Three will involve the coordination of community-based dialogue groups and MAP Clubs to inform policy and establish communication structures alongside synthesis and dissemination. The project will be working alongside cultural organisations, youth-serving CSOs, conflict and peace building CSOs, government institutions and ministries, higher education institutions, conflict management, and psychosocial wellbeing organisations. In this way, the project promises diverse impact at local, national and international levels. We will explore the following questions: 1. How can different art forms be used to co-design, deliver and evaluate peacebuilding curricula and other approaches for working with children and youth to address local conflict issues? 2. How might cultural forms be used for dialogue with and between children and youth, educators and policy makers to advance peacebuilding through a local and indigenous approach? 3. How might psychosocial support, including local healing practices, be better integrated within peacebuilding approaches by using the arts to promote the wellbeing of children and youth, especially those from marginalised groups? 4. How can cultural forms be incorporated into child- and youth-led participatory action research methodologies and adapted for the purposes of the design, undertaking and delivery of interdisciplinary projects in diverse social, political and cultural contexts? 5. How might these cultural forms be used to create alternative spaces and communication structures for peacebuilding approaches and curricula development to inform local, national and international approaches to peacebuilding.

'Nkwihoreze' (meaning taking care and strengthening one another in Kinyarwanda) is a creative arts and healing programme for children (aged 7-18), their families and psychosocial workers in Rwanda. Rwanda is approaching the 30th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi where over a million people were killed in 100 days. The prevalence of mental distress among the general population is consistently estimated as high. Increasing attention is being directed to intergenerational transmission of trauma but practitioners report a dearth of contextually grounded tools to engage children in discussion with older generations. This innovative, demand-led programme responds to the needs for creative and supportive intergenerational spaces, materials and trainings on trauma, memory, and healing identified in our previous research Connective Memories (CM): intergenerational expressions in contemporary Rwanda (funded through the AHRC Network Plus project Changing the Story: Building Inclusive Civil Societies with, and for, Young People in 5 Post-Conflict Countries AH/R005354/1). Nkwihoreze capitalises on an unanticipated avenue for impact and engagement, through the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between partner organisation Uyisenga Ni Manzi and the Rwandan Ministry of Health. The MoU includes approval for the establishment of an outreach centre, which will serve as a base for this project, but UNM currently lacks culturally appropriate resources to facilitate intergenerational dialogue and psychosocial support especially in relation to sensitive topics, including the 11994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Nkwihoreze will take creative approaches that explore new avenues and enhance the impact of the original project through a series of workshops, a travelling exhibition, and training. The project will engage with new audiences, namely children, caregivers and professionals in three different geographical sites (Kayonza in the Eastern Province, Rubavu in the Western Province, and the capital Kigali, as well as the original site of Rwamagana in the Eastern Province), with new user communities (health professionas) and national-level stakeholders. This project is particularly timely given the 30th commemoration in April 2024, for which the interactive public engagement exhibition will be launched and run through the 100 days of commemoration until July 2024. Our overall aim is the creation of new tools, materials, and approaches to promote and facilitate intergenerational dialogue through the arts on sensitive topics within families (including loss, absence, conflict, mental distress, and memory) to improve well-being among children and families and enhance the capacity of professionals working with children and families in using creative and arts-based approaches.