Violence and poverty have a large impact on one’s “mental landscape”, as our guest Mareike Schomerus, Vice President of Busara, refers to it. A ‘mental landscape’ encompasses the many experiences, memories and emotions that influence your decisions such as biases and expectations; your willingness to take risks, and what you think is fair or just. Western peacebuilders often lack understanding of such mental landscapes. Our other guest, Nika Saeedi from UNDP, is the global lead on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Peacebuilding, a field where such understanding is key. How do we understand each other’s realities better?

⁠Click here⁠ for more information about the Fragile Truths Podcast. To get in touch with Mareike Schomerus, you can follow Mareike on Twitter on ⁠LinkedIn⁠. To get in touch with Nika Saeedi, you can follow Nika on ⁠Twitter⁠ or ⁠LinkedIn⁠.

Supplemental reading:

• Mareike's book Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict can be found here. The publisher’s direct open access link can be found here.
• UNDP's Guidance Note on Integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Support into Peacebuilding (2022) can be found here.
• UNDP's story series providing a people-centred perspective on MHPSS in peacebuilding can be found through these links: pilot, story 2 & story 3.

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