In September 2020, Peace in Our Cities (PiOC) launched the Peace Incentive Fund (PIF), a small-grant mechanism focused on bridging knowledge and action by supporting city partners in their efforts to invest in prevention backed by evidence and network research.
In its first iteration, PIF supported partners applying solutions to advance public health while simultaneously reinforcing public safety. These approaches were based on PiOC’s research, Peace in Our Cities in Time of Pandemic. Nine partners from eight cities received small grants to advance city-based adaptations at that time, linking research to action during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Those resources reinforced not only capacity but also an ethos of grounding action with evidence.
As PiOC continued to grow, in the midst of a changing and ever-more-challenging global order, we kept tracking multiple, interrelated forms of urban violence and the range of effective strategies being pursued by a variety of local, national, and international actors. In this context, in 2024 we relaunched the Peace Incentive Fund (PIF 2.0) with a new round of financial resources to support efforts aligned with PiOC’s 2022 flagship report, Guiding Principles and Inspiring Actions: Operationalizing the Resolution to Reduce Urban Violence.
PiOC selected seven partners for PIF 2.0 with work to be completed during 2025. The selected projects were action oriented and sought to adapt, complement, and/or shift current city investments related to violence prevention and reduction, or to introduce new programming to a city. The second round of PIF was supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The results from PIF projects presented in this report demonstrate that even a small investment can yield significant impact by planting the seeds for more-targeted and efficient policies, and by transforming the lives of those most vulnerable to violence and insecurity.
Read the full report to learn more.