Michael Shipler is the Director of Programmes for Search for Common Ground in Nepal where he helped to start and is directing a national, multi-pronged peacebuilding program in support of the peace process. He has been working in the area of peacebuilding in armed conflict for ten years, developing a range of programs aimed at transforming the role of young people in conflicts. He previously founded and directed the Children and Youth Division of Search for Common Ground globally. In that capacity he co-founded the Washington Network on Children and Armed Conflict and co-created The Child Soldiers Initiative – a global project aimed at eradicating the use of children as soldiers – done in partnership with Lt. General Roméo Dallaire, UNICEF Canada, USAID’s Displaced Children and Orphans Fund, Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, and others. He has developed and supported children and youth-focused peacebuilding programs in Angola, Burundi, Nigeria, Liberia, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone among other countries. He authored Youth Radio for Peacebuilding: A Guide, as part of Radio for Peacebuilding Africa. Previously, while working for Youth for Peace, a youth-led organization in Cambodia, he developed a youth leadership development division that helps youth find ways of avoiding violence and contributing to reconciliation in their own communities. He is the author of "The Dancing Country and Other Stories."