Un Ponte Per ETS

Un Ponte Per (A Bridge to NGO)  is an Italian peace and solidarity association committed to peace, disarmament, solidarity, and social justice. Since 1991, it has worked alongside communities, movements, and civil society organizations affected by war, occupation, authoritarianism, and structural inequalities, particularly in the Mediterranean and South West Asia. Abroad, Un Ponte Per supports local civil society organizations as the main actors of social change, recognizing their knowledge, agency, and political role. Its humanitarian projects and international cooperation is based on long-term partnerships, shared priorities, and the defense of peoples’ rights, rather than on top-down models of aid.
In Italy, Un Ponte Per promotes peace education, human rights, active citizenship, environmental and social justice, and anti-racist and anti-militarist mobilization. Its work is also rooted in a decolonial perspective: challenging Eurocentric narratives, questioning the colonial legacies that still shape international relations, and supporting practices of solidarity based on mutual recognition rather than paternalism. Through local committees, schools, public campaigns, civil society networks, and community-based initiatives, Un Ponte Per works to strengthen solidarity from below and to build a culture of peace, nonviolence, and global justice across territories.
At the World Social Forum 2026 in Cotonou, Benin, Un Ponte Per is particularly interested in networking and exchanging with organizations, movements, and activists working on — and critically reflecting on — the decolonization of international cooperation and development aid. We believe that building bridges between struggles, territories, and movements is essential to confront militarism, colonial legacies, racism, climate injustice, and the global systems that produce exclusion. Another world is possible only if it is built together, from below.