WASHINGTON, D.C. – On February 24, The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM), in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, will host an expert panel discussion on water, conflict, and peacebuilding to mark the release of USAID’s Water & Conflict Toolkit.

The Water & Conflict Toolkit is part of a series that explores how development assistance can address key risk factors associated with conflict and fragility.  By exploring water issues in depth, the toolkit and others in the series serve as companion pieces to conflict assessments. Together, the USAID Conflict Assessment Framework (CAF 2.0) and toolkits are designed to help development practitioners gain a deeper understanding of the forces driving violence and instability and to assist in developing more strategic and focused development interventions.

• Melissa Brown, Director of USAID’s CMM Office, will provide opening remarks. The panelists consist of the following speakers:
• Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director, EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East, 2008 TIME Magazine Environmental Hero and two-time recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship
• Geoffrey Dabelko, Director of the Voinovich School's Environmental Studies Program at Ohio University and Senior Advisor to the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program
• Chris Kosnik, Acting Director of USAID’s Office of Water
• Sandra Ruckstuhl, Co-author of the toolkit and development and conflict expert
• Aaron Wolf, Renowned expert on transboundary water resources and political conflict and cooperation

For more information about the U.S. Agency for International Development, visit our Web site at www.usaid.gov.