David Wood has over 20 years’ professional and academic experience in the field of peace and conflict.
David’s is experienced in participatory approaches to dialogue and mediation, especially during periods of open violence when national dialogue or political negotiations become stalled. He has run community-level mediation processes (Libya and Syria), facilitated practical national dialogue processes (Libya and Georgia), organised community input into the formal conflict management mechanisms (Georgia / Abkhazia / South Ossetia), and mediated Track II processes in a range of conflicts. At CCDP he a Track II coordination process in support of the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen.
He has also focused on promoting more effective aid in conflict, across conflict sensitivity, stabilisation, and the nexus. This has included establishing participatory conflict sensitivity processes (Libya, Georgia / Abkhazia / South Ossetia, and Yemen), and stabilisation programmes (for example, he played a key role in the Stabilisation Facility to Libya). David is presently advising the German Government on nexus coordination in Yemen.
David has a depth of experience in finding creative ways to help community groups feel safer and access justice during periods of open conflict, or when the legitimacy of national authorities is contested. He has supported national police reform processes (Bosnia, Georgia, Moldova and Sri Lanka), has established community safety networks (Georgia / Abkhazia / South Ossetia, the Balkans), has worked to engage non-state actors in community safety projects, established alternative early-warning mechanisms (Georgia, Libya and Nagoro-Karabakh), and worked to increase controls over private security and military companies (the Balkans).
Finally, David supports good leadership in conflict contexts, with a focus on how leaders mobilise histories of trauma through commemoration. This work has included a number of talks, trainings, and publications, including ‘Ethics of Political Commemoration: Towards a New Paradigm’.