Dear RAP Initiative Community, In December 2022, the Race Across Initiative (RAP Initiative) celebrated its second anniversary. As we are moving towards the end of this project, I would like to take a moment to reflect and recognize our collective achievements. From its inception, the RAP Initiative was aimed to be time-bound with a two-years life duration. As we have recently completed our second year, it is, now, time for us to conclude this ambitious and critical project. I founded the RAP Initiative at the end of 2020, out of a need to dissect and expose how constructed race and racism impact the lives of communities of color globally, particularly for women and girls, and continue to threaten international peace and security. The road since its creation has been quite challenging, to say the least, but it has also been incredibly exciting and rewarding. From creating prolific Series1, and building a strong sisterhood community across the world, to publishing papers and hosting events with top-notch speakers and artists, the RAP Initiative has worked hard to live up to its mandate and values. Not only have our research teams contributed to shed light on talented women of color in different parts of the globe. The RAP Initiative has also given women of color a safe platform, through WCAPS, to raise their own voices and to speak for themselves, while exchanging and strategizing together to tackle issues that affect them the most. While we are conscious that there is still a very long road ahead of us to ensure a safer and more equal world for women and girls of color, we believe we have achieved the objectives of our initiative, by: - Contributing to the deconstruction and exposure of the mechanisms leveraged by racial and racist systems and societies, - Pushing the topics of racism and intersectionality in national and international discussions on peace, global security, and international development - Providing a safe space for collective thinking, dialogue and action to ensure inclusive peace and human security for everyone, and - Facilitating access to networks, knowledge, and resources to our members on professional advancement, psychological safety and protection strategies. With 12 team members, 5 Series projects, 20+ public events organized, 8 closed-door events convened, 40+ experts and 7 artists invited to speak and perform, 1 major policy paper on systemic racism in healthcare and 2 advocacy articles equity in access to Covid-19 vaccines published, I am extremely proud of the accomplishments our prolific teams have made in such a short period of time. Particularly, given that our teams were exclusively made of volunteers!
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Topic-based projects led by Researchers / Subject Matter Experts, focusing on 5 key areas: Women of Color in National Security; Women of Color in Healthcare Systems; Women, Girls & Youth in Violent Conflicts; Women of Color in international development; and a signature series on “How to Talk About Race and Racism