Peace and Collaborative Development Network

Peace and Collaborative Development Network (PCDN) is the go-to hub for global change makers. It is one of the world’s leading online networks to foster connections, share information and inspire the work of those for social change. This includes international development, conflict resolution, gender mainstreaming, human rights, social entrepreneurship and other related fields. The network was founded in 2007 by Georgetown University professor, Craig Zelizer. The network currently has 35,000 members from over 180 countries and territories.

History and Purpose

Founded in 2007, PCDN originally started as a platform to connect people working in international development and peacebuilding. In 2015, as past of the launch of the PCDN 3.0 platform, PCDN has expanded to cover the broader social changemaking fields which include peacebuilding, development, social entrepreneurship, social impact, etc.

PCDN is a membership driven platform. Membership can be individual or organizational. As a member, users can create a profile, contribute to discussions, create blog posts (there are over 11,000 blog posts to date), chat with fellow members, or post information about jobs, research, questions, conferences and events. All posts live on the website for others to read and you can pay a small fee for your information to be distributed to the network via email and social media platforms.

There are also a large number of guides available to members. Guides include topics such as careers, funding, research, social media/tech, practice and other relevant areas. In addition, over 2,000 jobs are posted on the network each year.

Since its founding, PCDN has had over 20 million hits and over 4,500,000 unique visitors to its platform. PCDN is releasing its 3.0 platform to provide additional ways for members to receive information, locate fellow members, search for job, find relevant opportunities and provide more space for engagement.

PCDN has office space at Washington, DC’s 1776 , a well regarded start-up incubator.

Founder/CEO

Dr. Craig Zelizer is the CEO and founder of PCDN. He is also the Associate Director for the MA in Conflict Resolution in the department of Government at Georgetown University. Craig has dedicated his life to being an entrepreneur and creating a more peaceful world- both in the United States and globally.

In an interview with Devin Thorpe of the Mark Your World Center in June 2015, Craig commented, “In order to better engage businesses in peacebuilding, it is necessary not only to make the moral case, but to show how peace is good for business in concrete terms.” In the same interview, he said “Violent conflict is one of the greatest challenges preventing the achievement of the MDGs [[[Millennium Development Goals]]] and more stable, peaceful societies.”

Craig is a co-founder and senior partner of a leading non-profit working on building peace through innovated research and practice called the Alliance for Conflict Transformation. In addition, he serves on a number of boards and advisory board including Alliance for Peacebuilding, Izone Project, Tech Change, Move this World, Amani Institute and others.

He was a Fulbright scholar in Hungry and Bore Fellow in Bosnia. His areas of expertise include working with youth from violent regions, civil society development and capacity building in transitional societies, program evaluation and design, working on conflict sensitivity and mainstreaming across development sectors, the connection between trauma and conflict, the role of the private sector in peacebuilding, and the arts and peacebuilding.

Craig has a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in social thought and political economy, an M.A. from Central European University in Society and Politics, and a Ph.D. from Georgetown Mason University in Conflict Analysis and Resolution.

Significant Achievements

The network is well-known as the go-to resource in the field of social change.

PCDN’s Director of Innovation, Catalina Rojas, received SXSW’s Dewey Wiburne Community Service award in 2015. She received this award for, among other things, her work with women-focused non-governmental and community-based organizations.

Office space for PCDN is located in DC’s renowned start-up incubator, 1776. This allows the organization access a number of significant resources and support.

Members

PCDN has more than 35,000 members from over 180 countries. Members range from young adults to senior professionals, policymakers, and academics.

There is a wide range of organizational members involved with PCDN. These include universities, large and small non-profits, and for-profit organization geared toward social causes. The cite attracts more than 100,000 unique visitors each month.