26 June 2025 – Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Peace
Can innovation and entrepreneurship help build peace in divided or fragile societies? On 26 June we held a webinar that explored how youth-led action, technology, and cross-border collaboration are reshaping communities.
Alliance member Social Tech Lab shared examples from Cyprus, the Western Balkans, and the Middle East, including award-winning initiatives like The Base by CyprusInno, the world’s first innovation hub in a UN buffer zone, using entrepreneurship to transform societies. Together with participants, we explored the opportunities and challenges of using innovation to foster peace in different regions.
The webinar attracted members of civil society, NGOs, social innovators, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders, policymakers and development practitioners.
Key topics that we explored
- How youth-led innovation is creating new pathways to economic resilience.
- What cross-border entrepreneurship looks like in divided societies.
- How digital tools and startup accelerators can bridge historical divides.
- What it takes to build inclusive, locally-rooted, and globally-scalable peacetech ecosystems.
- The reality of building inclusive digital societies in fragile contexts.
- Case studies from SocialTech Lab’s work in Cyprus and its scaling model in regions like the Middle East and the Western Balkans.
- Live input from participants on hopes, barriers, and ways to engage in peace innovation initiatives.
- How to adapt methodologies and form collaborations for other conflict-affected or divided contexts.
