The Youth Café | A formidable Member Of The Peace And Security Community.

The Youth Café, as a formidable member of the peace and security community, with a thematic area in peace and security, and actively engaging youth in the maintenance and promotion of local and international peace and security through the prevention of violent extremism, in collaboration with United Nations System Staff College, is pleased to invite you to learn more about the YPS primer. The Youth, Peace, and Security Primer, also known as the YPS Primer, is a FREE online learning tool that provides hands-on guidance and resources on promoting meaningful youth participation in peace and security efforts and is available in 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese. 

The Primer, developed by UNSSC in partnership with the Folke Bernadotte Academy, builds on the “Youth, Peace and Security: A Programming Handbook”, developed by the UN with support from the Folke Bernadotte Academy. The FREE YPS Primer aims to establish a common base of understanding and approach for the UN system and partners in implementing the Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda. It is meant to inform, in broad terms, the programs and actions of all UN entities working with and for youth in peace and security.

The YPS Primer aims to establish a joint base of understanding and approach for the UN system and partners in implementing the Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda.

By adopting the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security and its subsequent resolutions, Member States and UN organs and entities have been called upon to increase meaningful and inclusive participation of youth in peacebuilding efforts at all levels.

The world is experiencing a 30-year high in violent conflict. Battle deaths worldwide have increased by 340% in the last ten years. Nearly 70 million people remain displaced, 90% of whom are fleeing violence, war, and persecution. Despite the $14.8 trillion that goes into violence containment annually, violence and violent conflict continue to result in massive human suffering, reverse development, and erode global social cohesion. Young people represent the world's brightest hope to change these trendlines. 

In 2014, the world's youth population (between 15 and 24 years) rose to 1.8 billion, eclipsing the adult population in scores of developing countries. The vast majority of young people are not involved in or in danger of participating in violence. Many young women and men are actively working for peace and security in their communities, as documented extensively in the 2018 global study, “The Missing Peace.” 

However, the prevailing narrative frames youth as a problem to be solved or a threat to be contained. And this leads decision-makers to focus on complex security approaches that often do more harm than good, stigmatizing youth and fueling their sense of injustice and loss of faith in their governments and the international system. Instead, evidence and research demonstrate the need to invest in young people's innovative peace work and their socio-cultural, political, and economic participation and inclusion. Young people represent the majority of the population in the top conflict-affected countries, where on average, 50 percent of the population is below the age of 20. At the same time, more than 70 percent of the population in some countries is below 30 years.

Youth populations have long been at the forefront of political and social change. Around the world, young people channel their creative mobilizing power to mitigate the adverse effects of conflict, prevent recurring cycles of violence, disengage and reduce recruitment into armed groups, and build social cohesion. Many young people do not participate in violence, and research has identified conditions and factors contributing to youth resilience. On an individual and community level, relationships of respect and dignity, opportunities to exercise agency, and a sense of self-realization are as crucial for young people's resilience as their need for material well-being. 

Despite persistent exclusion from meaningful social, political, and economic participation, young people worldwide actively build and sustain peace. Their actions range from simple acts of community service and civic engagement to organizing and mobilizing their peers at national, regional, and global levels to address different forms of violence. Youth work across all phases of the peace and conflict cycle, from violence prevention to post-conflict peacebuilding, despite operational impediments and risks to their safety.

A majority of the youth-led organizations surveyed, operate with less than $10,000 per year, rely primarily on volunteers (97% of their members), and struggle to operate safely in conflict zones and under government repression. Much of today's youth-led peacebuilding work is intensely local, small-scale, and oriented towards other youth. Still, it can also extend to national and international level networking and programming. Regardless of the scale and operational limitations, the impact of youth work often spans generations, communities, and borders. For example, in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, youth who had been active youth leaders have become policymakers at the district and national levels who look beyond ethnic and ideological divides to find common ground. The adoption of the United Nations Security Council resolution 2250, with youth organizations as its first advocates, demonstrates the power of young people's work on a global scale.

The International Day of Peace, 2020 finds The Youth Café involved in peacebuilding activities and conversations in Africa and the globe. The Youth, Peace, and Security mission has gained impetus, debunking the myths surrounding youth involvement in the conflict. Formerly, young people were viewed as a risk of being tamed or victims needing protection in war-torn regions. This narrative has now shifted focus to the inclusion of youth in peacebuilding 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 at 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 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 2250 following recommendations to establish YPS Coalitions in a bid to ascertain "a collective impact on YPS at local, national, regional and global levels."

The Youth Café works with young men and women around Africa as a trailblazer in advancing youth-led approaches toward achieving sustainable development, social equity, innovative solutions, community resilience, and transformative change.

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