The Role of Youth In Peacebuilding And Conflict Resolution

Undoubtedly, there is a need to generate a culture of peace and conflict free environment, particularly among the youth. The youth, products of their communities, are key agents of peacebuilding, especially those who have experienced conflict firsthand. These young people have key roles to play in peace processes since they have a clear vision of what peace could look like in their countries and communities and have the drive to work towards the realisation of these goals.

Conflict and violence have swallowed up the world today however human beings have always moved on. More than 400 million young people, between the ages of 15 to 29 live in fragile and conflict- affected contexts across the globe. This means that more than four hundred million young people experience violence, face exploitation, miss out on education, and struggle to survive, such as in the case of Sierra Leone and the Charles Taylor case. There has been no period in history, which has not witnessed violent conflicts.

“Considering that 65% of the population on the African continent consists of young people, it is becoming increasingly important that, rather than seeing young people as agents of conflict and destruction, they are seen as agents of peace, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue and advocates for social cohesion in their communities. Enhancing structures that promote the participation of youth in peacebuilding will actively contribute to their engagement with decisions and activities that affect their wellbeing,” says Organisation of African Youth in Cameroon.

Amidst such challenges, young people have shown that they are able to play active roles more so at the grassroots and local levels, as peacemakers, mediators and peacebuilders as recognised with the adoption of Resolution 2250 by the United Nations security Council in 2015. As one of the pillars of the UN’s Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda, this included a commitment to ensuring the participation of young people in conflict prevention and resolution, violent prevention, and the promotion of social cohesion. 

What must be done to enable youth to become active agents of peace? One of the significant roles which the youth can play in peace and conflict resolution is for them to “BE THE CHANGE”, says Soma Bhowmick. She further proceeds to assert that “This will make the youth change attitudes towards people, traditions, religions and beliefs. The young people will discover to combine their passion with patience, appreciate the importance of peaceful co-existence and will be in charge of depending on the frontiers of peace and non-violence.

However there is a greater need today among the youth to reevaluate their understanding about their leadership capacity. There is an urgent need to relook the need for community leadership and take opportunities offered to prioritize leadership development programs because being deficient in knowledge about basic decision making encumbers progress and therefore results in conflicts.”

Additionally, inclusion of young people in peacebuilding processes will facilitate peace in a society as the young people’s energies are redirected to the implementation of constructive peace projects. Peacebuilding efforts should not only be about signing agreements to stop violence but also involve a social change that can be brought about by formal, non-formal, and informal education; school-to-work transition; peacebuilding and conflict resolution; youth engagement, participation, and empowerment; workforce development and livelihoods.

With the specific set of opportunities, interrelated and mutually reinforcing enables their transformation from being agents of violent conflict to agents of peace in their societies. It must be noted that a conflict situation cannot be brought to rest, managed or transformed, without adequately exploring how the energy of its primary agents being the youth could be redirected for the attainment of sustainable peace in a society. 

Moreover, enhancing structures that promote the participation of youth in peacebuilding processes actively contributes to young people’s engagement with decisions and activities that affect their wellbeing. The availability of adequate educational infrastructure and systems, employment opportunities and other structures through which youths can be active participants in making decisions concerning their wellbeing and that of the country at large, would go a long way to redirect youths’ energy from conflict to societal development.

This would consequently enable the development of sustainable peace and security in societies. Policies and institutions that enable investment in children and youth to succeed at the micro and macro levels should be encouraged. These could take the form of full multi-sector programmes that target youth in specific areas of activity, such as employment creation and/or peacebuilding projects. By investing sufficiently in young people’s agency in peace processes, the peace dividend will increase significantly. 

Lastly, it is important that we create space for youth to engage in political processes. Many youth feel excluded from political processes, and from making meaningful contributions. It is crucial that governments make sustained commitments to rebuild the young people’s trust and confidence in governments.

To be able to enrich the lives of young people by modelling and advancing youth-led and rights-based approaches to foster young people’s civic efficacy, community resilience, sustainable development, an equitable society, as well as proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress, and inspiring transformative change by utilizing innovative research, policy, and advocacy actions, The Youth Café works mainly in eight priority areas to which it brings a multidisciplinary and multi-perspective approach.

One of the thematic areas is Peace and Security, including preventing violent extremism. Since a higher percentage of youth engage in media platforms (social, mainstream, digital), we have used the media platform to increase advocacy on the prevention of violent extremism, raised awareness of the gaps between political intentions and realities on the ground, about which accurate information is lacking and participated in the maintenance and promotion of local and international peace and security hence achieving positive contributions. 

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