Welcome to the United Nations
In many corners of the world, youth are becoming increasingly vulnerable to violent extremism. In some cases children or young people become radicalised and commit violent acts. In other places, a violent environment profoundly affects the lives of children and young people.
Issues like youth unemployment, a lack of development, a grim future and divisive societies are the main ingredients for an environment where violence affects young people. But it takes time to address these issues through social policy.
Meanwhile some NGOs are doing valuable work in the field. They are applying different approaches to foster peace in violent environments and to promote young peacebuilders into leadership positions – providing examples for policy-makers.
During UNGA Week, the United Nations HQ in NY hosted the event Youth-led Peacebuilding: Lessons from the Field, gathering several civil society representatives who shared their approaches to youth peacebuilding.
The session’s moderator Mark Clark Chief, Executive Officer of Generations for Peace, remembered before the start of the session that H.E. M Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, pledged to make year 2017 about peace. He also underscored resolution 2250 as a guiding tool for civil society on the ground trying to work in youth-led peacebuilding.
"There are more than 600 million young people living in fragile and conflict affected contexts today. The most affected by political violence, criminal gangs, organised crime, terrorist attacks and violence extremism. They are bearing enormous and long lasting human cost", said Clark.
Search for Common Ground
Search for Common Ground is a peacebuilding organisation working in around 50 countries worldwide. Each year 200.000 children and young people participate in their programmes.
"We live in a world that is outrageously unjust and young people are the last to accept injustice. Nowhere is more unjust than for children growing up in Congo, South Sudan, Yemen or the slumps of San Salvador and Jakarta", said Mike Jobbins, director for Global Affairs at Search for Common Ground.
Jobbins spent some time in Congo where young people used to talk about the anti-values: a situation in which people who engage in violent acts rise to the top in contrast with people who stand up for peace and help their neighbours. "It is like watching a Western movie where the bad guy always wins", said Mr Jobbins.
Search for Common Ground created a reality TV show where young people would see positive role models. An episode featured a race among two activists to see who would get water turned on for their communities first by addressing a letter to the governor.
Search for Common Ground is also working with governments and the private sector to transfer resources to a community of young peacebuilders. Rather than government officials figuring out ways to improve communities, Search for Common Ground has another approach: transfer resources into a collaborative group of young people and bring the kind of changes they want to see in their cities.
"Young people growing in a system of injustice where life is fundamentally unfair will take action and how they do that depends on the options presented to them and the role models that they see", said Mr Jobbins.
Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization that believes that a better world is possible. It has presence in over 40 countries. Mercy Corps puts bold solutions into action by working with people from communities.
According to Karen Scriven, director of strategic partnerships at Mercy Corps, youth are agents of change that can push for the development of their communities. "We hear everywhere that youth are tomorrow’s leaders. But really youth are today’s leaders", she says.
Conflict usually occurs because of a disruption of governance, economic, ecological or social systems. That is why Mercy Corps takes a systems approach when working with youth in communities torn apart by violence. Mercy Corps’ action is preceded by a system analysis that determines how to act to have the most impact in reducing conflict.
Karen Scriven highlighted some of Mercy Corps’ projects where they apply this approach. First in Somalia, where the NGO facilitates youth-led civic engagement and access to secondary education, both of which reduce the risk of young people participating in political violence.
Second in Uganda, where the NGO works with former warriors that surrendered their guns and are trying to make a living in their communities without engaging in violence.
Third in Jordan, where Mercy Corps is focusing in trying to reduce the risk that adolescents fall into the influence of radical and violent groups by looking at their stress levels and teaching them coping mechanisms.
Peace Direct Network & Aware Girls
Saba Ismail is the co-founder of Aware Girls, an organisation which advocates for equal rights and access of young women to education, health, employment and all social services in Pakistan. This NGO is part of Peace Direct Network, a larger organisation that supports local people in conflict environments.
Saba and her sister founded Aware Girls at the age of 15, when they realised that discrimination based on religion identity is very common in Pakistan. Later on, the sisters established the Youth Peace Network to challenge extremist narratives and dissuade young people from joining extremist groups.
To achieve their goals, the Youth Peace Network establishes peer education programs, study circles and workshops. They also engage with media, bloggers and conduct outreach activities. Young leaders who choose to become peace activists help design the activities and try to identify other young people at risk of falling into radical and violent ideologies.
Another project brings together people of different cultures and ideologies in different religious buildings (churches, mosques, Hindu temples) to engage in interfaith dialogues, all aimed at breaking societal stereotypes of different religious groups.
With more than 600 young people involved, Youth Peace Network reaches around three thousand young people. They also have programs with a specific focus on gender equality, like a political leadership program for women. Thanks to the program, for the first time in history, some women ran for local elections in rural communities and were successfully elected.
New York City Cure Violence
New York City Cure Violence is an organisation that fights against the spreading of violence using their own particular model. As Calliana Thomas, a representative from the NGO, said at UN Headquarters, they treat violence as if it were a health issue. In their eyes, violence is like a disease that can spread. And it must be controlled.
Their approach focuses on specific violent neighbourhoods and has been tested in 25 cities in the US and many more all over the world. Cure Violence uses messengers, leaders in the community that identify young people at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violence.
In fact, the messengers are often people that engaged in gang-related or other illegal activities and have then steered their lives into being positive role models for their community. These messengers are respected, street-wise, connected and able to relate to youth.
The New York Cure Violence program started in selected areas of the city in 2010. Since then it has expanded the services it offers to include mediation, therapeutic services and employment opportunities in all five boroughs of New York City.
Peace First
Peace First was founded 25 years ago in Boston by young people who wanted to use peacemaking to change the world. Since then, this organisation has been trying to understand how to better help young people turn their ideas into reality and solve injustice through peace projects.
"We usually see young people as victims, problems of the future. But we rarely see them as part of the solution", said Raul Caceres, Chief Program and Technology Officer at Peace First. He presented a program called Peace First Challenge, a movement powered by young people that can counteract the current narrative of violence and division in the US and in the rest of the world.
After conducting research on what constitutes success for young-led movements, Peace First concluded that a successful movement requires three factors: young leadership, powerful stories and simple invitations to join the movement.
"Peace First challenge is a global call for people that want to identify violence and injustice in their communities. They create a plan, they take action and reflect on how they changed the communities. The organisation helps them with tools, resources, face to face mentorship, etc. We also try to connect them with other young people who are doing similar things around the world", said Mr Caceres.
The Peace First Challenge approach is based in believing that young people successfully turn their ideas into meaningful action when adults believe in them. According to Mr Caceres, young people in the program are surprised that adults believe in them. At the same time, adults see how much young people can do for their communities. That is how he puts it: "We just go to where young people are and say how can we help? We don’t spend much time telling them what they need to do or how to do it. We have the resources and we help them in the way they tell us it is best."
For more information on DSPD’s work on youth, please click here.
Source: UNSDN