Introduction

KATU - Civil Society Conflict Prevention Network

Finnish conflict prevention network

KATU - the Civil Society Conflict Prevention Network was established in spring 1997. KATU is an open network, a forum combining the efforts of conflict prevention of Finnish NGO's. There are at the moment some 30 NGO's and research institutes as well as many individuals cooperating within KATU.

The discussion on conflict prevention as such, and the role that civil society can play in preventing violent conflicts, had been going on among the NGOs for some time before that. There was a strong belief that traditional state-centered approach to conflict prevention and management had become insufficient. A multi-track solution, taking into account all the different actors of civil society such as non-governmental organizations, is needed.