Background

The Peace Resource Collaborative (PRC) was established in 2014 – as a joint initiative of eight academic institutions – to provide knowledge, expertise, and skills to help transform the conflict in the Deep South of Thailand/Patani. The collaboration of the eight institutions started in 2011 with the creation of the “Insider Peacebuilders’ Platform” (IPP), a diverse network of individuals from within region as well as from other parts of Thailand, who were keen to explore and share ideas around the peaceful settlement of the conflict. In 2017, the IPP network created a governance structure of its own through the annual election of an IPP Committee. Following this restructuring, PRC continues to support the IPP by providing academic content and administrative oversight. In the same year, PRC decided it would start to broaden its scope of work beyond the Deep South of Thailand/Patani. This was in recognition of the fact that society, in general, would benefit from a better understanding of ways to transform actual or potentially violent conflicts.

PRC’s work is guided by an advisory board composed of representatives from its eight founding institutions. Financial and administrative oversight of the PRC was initially undertaken by the Center for Conflict Studies and Cultural Diversity (CSCD, PSU Pattani). Since 2018, this responsibility has been shared with the Institute of Peace Studies (IPS, PSU Hat Yai). The PRC was registered as a foundation under Thai law in January 2020.

PRC has two offices – in the Faculty of Political Science, PSU Pattani Campus and in the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. PRC is currently funded by international organisations and embassies interested in peacebuilding.