We wish to thank you for sharing with us the past year full of exciting new communication and media for development projects, evaluations, articles, and publications. We hope that we have provided to you at least a small portion of the support that we have felt from you over the year. Whatever your celebrations at this time of year, we wish you warm, safe, and peaceful transitions into 2009.

The final issue of The Drum Beat for 2008 can be found here. The next issue of The Drum Beat will be published January 12th.

The next issue of Development Classifieds will be published January 7th, 2009. Please submit your vacant posts, opportunities, and books, videos, and journals for posting as soon as possible.

Moving towards Peace

Peace and Conflict Timeline (PACT)

...a participatory media project designed to track the history of conflict in Sri Lanka - online. PACT is designed to help those with an interest in the Sri Lankan conflict to gain a deeper understanding of the conflict's roots, manifestation, and trajectory and to promote dialogue and debate around themes and experiences of peace and conflict-related events...

Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS)

...focused on South Eastern Europe and the Middle East, uses sports as a tool for social cohesion to bring together children in areas of the world working toward post-conflict reconciliation. To illustrate this strategy "in action", in the Balkans, the "playing for peace" concept is centred around the involvement of 2 municipalities and 4 football clubs. The municipalities must be from different sides of an ethnic divide or other line of confrontation. The football schools are conducted as games for children in mixed teams of approximately 16 children - each team comprising children from both municipalities and all football clubs...

World Laughter Pledge

...launched in August 2008, a global initiative founded in Europe and Africa for spreading peace, love, and joy. The pledge aims to get people of the world laughing together at the same time every Saturday - for a few seconds or a few minutes. The goal is to use laughter as a tool to heal suffering, bring people together, and encourage positive thinking and creativity...