The Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) is a non-governmental organization with an international scope and reach, founded by social activist and UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace, Forest Whitaker in 2012. WPDI develops an array of peace-building programs, initiatives and campaigns to foster peace and reconciliation in disadvantaged and fragile communities in the different regions of the world, including Africa, Latin America and the United States. WPDI seeks to bring good men and women together and to empower them to become peace leaders and agents of positive transformations in their countries and communities. We believe that young people, so often recruited to perpetuate destructive cycles of violence, have the passion and creativity to lead their communities down a different path, one of peace and sustainable development.