The Youth Cafe And The US-Youth, Peace, And Security Coalition

The International Day of Peace, 2020 finds The Youth Café in active involvement in peace-building activities and conversations in Africa and the globe. The organization pays particularly emphasis on inclusive, intersectional and decolonized peace-building as a way of embracing the ‘New Way of Working’ international humanitarian agenda. The Youth, Peace, and Security mission has gained impetus in recent years, debunking the myths surrounding youth involvement in conflict. Formerly, young people have been viewed as a risk needing to be tamed or victims needing protection in war-torn regions. This narrative has now shifted focus to inclusion of youth in peace building as they are, in fact, leaders in need of support. The unanimous adoption by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 (UNSCR 2250) on Youth, Peace and Security in 2015 is evidence of this shift to granting the youth a better platform for decision-making in national, regional and international levels.

The Youth Café, committing to the UN Youth, Peace and Security agenda, recently became a member of the United States-Youth Peace and Security Coalition (US-YPS), co-led by Search for Common Ground and the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The Coalition is part of the larger Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security which consists of an amalgam of civil society organizations, including youth-led and youth-serving ones like The Youth Café, UN entities, donors, academia and inter-governmental bodies.

The mission of the global Coalition is to provide comprehensive guidance direction and support on youth, peace and security with the overarching goal of execution of the UNSCR 2250 guidelines into practice and to improve and amplify evidence-based practice, support and advocate for young people’s meaningful participation in peace and security efforts globally and locally. The Coalition started out as the Working Group on Youth and Peace Building in 2012. It then renamed Global Coalition on Youth, Peace, and Security upon adoption of the UNSCR 2050 following recommendations to establish YPS Coalitions in a bid to ascertain “a collective impact on YPS at local, national, regional and global levels”.

To further the execution of the Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security, the US House of Representative passed the Youth, Peace and Security Act, 2020. The Act aims to support inclusive and meaningful participation of youth in peace building and conflict preventions, management and resolution as well as post-conflict relief and recovery effort. The Act requires the U.S government to collaborate with global civil society to establish a policy of support to youth peace-builders and increase U.S direct assistance for youth-led peace-building programs. The US-YPS Coalition was formed under this backdrop as a machinery toward the achievement of these peace goals. The Youth Café joined this Coalition to support the agenda as it is in alignment with its peace, security and prevention of violent extremism focus area.

The Youth Café’s membership in the US-YPS Coalition is a step in the right direction towards the attainment of its objectives in its peace and security work docket that calls for effective participation of the youth in peace-building efforts in fragile areas. By endorsing the YPS Act, the organization joins other organizations in the journey towards a peaceful world. To this end, The Youth Café’s objects in relation to peace and security are:

• To strengthen stabilization efforts in the violence hotspots through a) enhanced coordination and accountability (enabling the mapping of key basic services and causal factors for peace) and b) stronger involvement of local youth as monitors.

• An objective, simplified overview of all efforts unfolding on the ground through the mapping of stabilization activities in the conflict affected regions.

• The capacity and role of local youth is strengthened through their involvement in the mapping and monitoring processes.

• Data analysis, transparency, positive digital media use, inter-faith and inter-generational dialogues, accountability and integrity are strengthened. 

• Improved coordination between stakeholders leading to better-targeted resource allocation. 

In the same vein, The Youth Café, in joining the coalitions, steers its efforts in collaboration with other partners in the expectation of achieving its activities and aspirations of peace and security in Africa and the world through leveraging the potential of youth leaders and the amplification of youthful voices. The Youth Café’s activities and aspirations in this regard include the following:

• In specific strategic locations of affected regions, identify key focus sectors (e.g. education,  health, local governance, youth employment, countering violent extremism, prioritized in  The Youth Cafe Stabilization Strategy on which a mapping and youth monitoring approach will be piloted;

• Developing, maintaining and updating a user-friendly map-based platform, to map the stabilization infrastructures in the target locations and sectors. This should build on existing data collection and analysis tools if available;

• Designing a local monitoring method which ensures local buy-in, notably through the involvement of youth;

• Selecting, training and supporting local youth to collect data, using locally adapted digital tools and compensating their services;

• Disseminating information locally and internationally on the platform and the "new way of working";

• Coordinating closely with key institutions (notably AU, UN and other partners), local stakeholders, relevant key public actors and international organizations, to encourage their use of the data and tools, and for scale-up and sustainability. 

The growing momentum of the creation of avenues for youth inclusion in the youth, peace and security agenda of the United Nations was invoked by the realization of the significant role played by the youthful population during conflict. Despite their role, the youth had been structurally excluded from accessing both power and resources to enable them to effectively participate in the fight against conflicts in the globe. These gaps necessitated the formation of the Working Group on Youth and Peace Building in 2012 and subsequently the Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security following the adaptation of the UNSCR 2250 by the UN. To further the goals of this Resolution, the YPS Act was passed in the US, hence the formation of the US-YPS Coalition that seeks to engage various stakeholders such as The Youth Cafe to support peace-builders and increase the U.S direct assistance for youth-led peace building programs. The Youth Café, as a youth-led and youth-serving organization committed to the goal of peace and security based on its work in various related topics, is delighted to be part of the Coalition to partner towards the execution of UNSCR 2250 and the reign of peace in the world.

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By Karen Koech, Research and Business Development Associate at The Youth Cafe