September 21, 2025
By WPDI Founder and CEO Forest Whitaker
Each year, the International Day of Peace challenges us to imagine a world without violence, hate, or division and to take steps toward making that vision real.
On International Day of Peace 2025, the UN invites us to, “Act Now for a Peaceful World.” This call to action resonates with the urgency of the moment we are living in. Ours is a time of turbulence, tumult, and uncertainty, a time when peace cannot wait for tomorrow. Peace, we must bear in mind, is built everyday; through the choices we make, the words we speak, and the actions we take.
As Nelson Mandela once said, “Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it.”
Courage is what peace demands of us.
The challenges are immense. The United Nations has found that more than 114 million people around the world are currently displaced by conflict, persecution, and disasters. One in four children lives in a conflict zone. Inequality is widening, and the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat – it is fueling violence, destabilizing food systems, livelihoods, and stability. At the same time, the international development sector is facing a profound shake-up. Funding shortfalls have forced organizations everywhere—including WPDI—to do more with less, even as needs grow. But while resources are strained, one truth remains constant: local communities know what they need. The role of organizations like ours is not to impose, but to listen, support, and provide the means to their ends.
At WPDI, we see every day how peace is being built by ordinary people in extraordinary ways. In South Sudan—the world’s youngest country, still navigating the legacies of civil unrest and the ripple effects of ongoing regional crises—youth peacemakers are teaching mediation in schools and villages, helping to break cycles of violence before they escalate. This October, their work will be recognized on the global stage when WPDI’s Youth Peacemaker Network in South Sudan is showcased at the Paris Peace Forum.
And we see many of these extraordinary individuals in the places where we operate. In South Africa, community leaders in Cape Town are taking bold steps to address structural violence in their neighborhoods, creating safe spaces for young people and showing how locally driven action can challenge entrenched patterns of exclusion and insecurity. In Northern Uganda, young women entrepreneurs supported by WPDI are creating businesses that provide jobs and strengthen resilience in communities already confronting the harsh realities of climate change. In Mexico’s Chiapas region, Indigenous youth networks are drawing on ancestral knowledge alongside innovative approaches to protect the environment and foster inclusion. In France, in Saint-Denis, our Women’s Livelihood Program is transforming entire families as women gain the tools to build small businesses, strengthen their independence, and reinvest in their communities. And in the United States, our Domestic Harmonizer Program brings peace education into classrooms, equipping students with the skills to resolve disputes, counter bullying, and build respect across differences.
These are not isolated efforts—they are part of a global movement of people refusing to accept violence and inequality as inevitable. But peace is not only the work of peacekeepers or activists. Each of us has a role to play. We can spark conversations about nonviolence and understanding. We can challenge discriminatory language in our workplaces and schools. We can verify facts before we post on social media. We can volunteer in our communities, listen to perspectives different from our own, and support organizations that protect human rights and the planet.
Peace is not a neutral, passive state of things.
Peace is the courage to stand up against the senseless destruction of war. Peace is the quiet strength of creation: the choice to build, uplift, and dream. It lives in every act of hope, and in the belief that the future is a canvas of our highest ideals.
On this International Day of Peace, let our actions for peace speak louder than words.
With resolve and gratitude,
Forest Whitaker
UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation
CEO & Founder, Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative