Bashar Salem Eltalhi was born and raised in Benghazi, Libya, and is a current country manager in Libya for Peaceful Change Initiative. Bashar plays an important role in supporting more effective and coordinated action by national leaders to manage conflicts in Libya. This includes building the capacity of local authorities to promote social peace through the delivery of services; supporting community leaders to develop practical initiatives to reduce tensions in their community; and providing regular analysis of conflict and peace trends in the country, and forums for ‘peace-builders’ to work together. Prior to that, Bashar was a National Professional Officer within the Security Sector Advisory and Coordination Division at UNSMIL. Bashar had a prominent role in providing the team with local perspective on the Libyan security situation, and in enhancing the quality of support to Libyan counterparts. He started his political involvement in 2011, during the early days of the Libyan revolution. He assisted different organizations such as Human Rights Watch and the New York Times to understand the situation on the ground. He joined the first team who documented the Libyan regime’s use of cluster bombs against civilians in Misrata. He then decided to join the NTC’s media committee as an information analyst. He also collaborated with Marie Colvin from Sunday Times on two articles ‘Killing rooms plot bloody retreat of troops loyal to Tyrant Jr’ and chic ‘in Jufra Libya’, both published. Finally, he was on the first ship to dock in Tripoli, August 2011 with IOM where he participated in the evacuation of 200 foreigners. Bashar holds a Masters degree in information system from the Arab academy for science and technology.