Globally, over 600 million young people are estimated to be living in fragile and conflict-affected areas. These young people often face systematic challenges, including exposure to violence, forced recruitment into armed groups, displacement, and loss of educational and employment opportunities. These adversities not only disrupt their development but also perpetuate cycles of poverty and instability.<\/p>\r\n
Despite these challenges and the associated stereotypes \u2013 which frequently treat young men as a \u201cthreat\u201d and consign young women to the status of passive victimhood \u2013 young women and men have demonstrated their capacity to---, and particularly to make a positive contribution to building peace, preventing violence, and mediating conflict. Across the globe, young people often provide the leadership in social movements for change: on the front lines in the existential fight for climate justice; in arms control and anti-war movements; through struggles for human security, and in inclusive, legitimate, and accessible governance; in the quest for justice and accountability (whether through traditional, formal, or transitional justice measures); in the struggle against systemic racism; and in the quest to address social and economic inequality.<\/p>\r\n
Young people therefore bring unique perspectives, energy, and innovative solutions to building peace and mediating conflict. Furthermore, no one has a greater interest in both the immediate and the trans-generational future of peaceful societies than young people do. Inclusive peace processes that involve young people are therefore more likely to be sustainable and to be seen as legitimate in addressing the needs and aspirations of a significant portion of the population. As such, in many conflict-affected societies, young people offer not only the potential of a \u2018demographic dividend\u2019, but the unique promise of a \u2018peace dividend\u2019. Meaningful youth inclusion in building peace is, however, not just about the quota of young people who participate in peacebuilding activities \u2013 it is about how a youth-centred approach offers different perspectives that may challenge conventional thinking about building and sustaining peace.<\/p>\r\n
However, young people are often still marginalised in peacebuilding and conflict mediation processes, their voices unheard, and their innovative potential remains largely untapped. The positive potential of youth involvement in peace processes, mediation of conflict, and peacebuilding, has been recognised as a key component of the Youth and Peace and Security (YPS) agenda, clearly promoted in UNSCRs 2250 (2015) as well as subsequent Resolutions 2419 and 2535, and articulated in the Progress Study on YPS: The Missing Peace<\/a>, mandated by the UNSCR 2250.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Youth-based peacebuilding has been at the forefront of Interpeace\u2019s work for over two decades, working across Africa, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Interpeace\u2019s approach is rooted in the belief that youth engagement is not only a matter of inclusion or representation\u2014it is a transformative lens that challenges and redefines how peacebuilding is conceived, practiced, and sustained.<\/p>\r\n Over a decade ago, Interpeace developed a multi-country youth peacebuilding strategy grounded in horizontal learning across its country programmes. This strategy moved beyond risk- or security-based approaches to young people and instead invested in young people\u2019s resilience and agency as core drivers of peace. Today, that investment continues to grow\u2014anchored in Interpeace\u2019s commitment to building youth-centred peacebuilding systems that are preventive, inclusive, and responsive to generational dynamics.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Interpeace engages with young people from across the social and political spectrum\u2014including young people in formal politics, informal and traditional structures, education systems, gangs, the arts, pastoralist communities, and more\u2014acknowledging that the youth sector is not monolithic and that peacebuilding entry points must reflect this diversity. We work with and through informal spaces\u2014such as creative activism, storytelling, and social movements\u2014while also strengthening youth pathways into formal peace processes.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Interpeace facilitates inter- and intra-generational dialogue as a cornerstone of our peacebuilding approach. These exchanges are grounded in the understanding that relationships between young people and older generations are among the most significant resilience factors to conflict. They enable mutual listening and healing, acknowledge both past and present grievances, and foster a deep sense of connection across time. In doing so, they act as a vital preventive mechanism, strengthening the social contract where trust has been fractured. Through intergenerational dialogue and structured exchanges with decision-makers, we create spaces where young people's perspectives are heard, valued, and integrated into governance and peace processes.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Interpeace contributes to expanding and legitimising the active roles that young people play in peace processes\u2014within the room, around the room, and beyond the room. Our support includes mentoring and training young peacebuilders, strengthening youth-led mediation and dialogue, and recognising youth as \u2018insider mediators\u2019 who build trust and facilitate problem-solving from within their communities. We work to transform peacebuilding systems themselves to become more youth-responsive and youth-led, ensuring that young people are not only included in peacebuilding but are co-creators of policy, practice, and governance. Interpeace accompanies institutions across sectors\u2014including peace, reconciliation, education, employment, and climate\u2014in consulting with young people and integrating their recommendations into policies and systems. We see you people not only as stakeholders but as co-creators of policy and systems change. We engage young people across formal and informal tracks of diplomacy and negotiation, recognising their creativity, networks and credibility in addressing conflict dynamics. This strategic approach enhances the durability of peace agreements, the effectiveness of violence prevention, and the legitimacy of peace processes by embedding youth perspectives and leadership at all levels.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Interpeace supports young people in identifying their peacebuilding and violence prevention priorities and customising their own entry points for YPS implementation. We amplify their voices and recommendations and connect them with formal and informal decision-makers at local, national, regional and global levels to amplify their voices and perspectives on peacebuilding policy and the implementation and evaluation of the YPS agenda. We provide financial, technical and accompaniment support to youth-led initiatives that advance social cohesion, community resilience and inclusive peacebuilding, ensuring that youth are not just participants but designers and implementers of peace efforts. And we help build a youth peacebuilding movement that strengthens solidarity across divides and supports peer-driven innovation.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Young people often face exclusion not only from political systems but also from economic systems that overlook their ambitions and fail to meet their needs. Interpeace works to expand meaningful economic opportunities for young people through a peace-responsive lens\u2014through vocational training, entrepreneurship support, and inclusion in economic development initiatives tailored to young people. At the same time, we engage with government institutions to address the structural barriers that limit youth economic participation, recognising that economic empowerment is essential to building lasting peace.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Based on our recognition of the transformative potential of YPS for the peacebuilding field as a whole, we see our work in this sphere as aspiring to drive systemic change rather than just addressing the symptoms of youth marginalisation. To this end, we prioritise the meaningful inclusion, participation and leadership of young women and men, in many or all the spheres that affect their lives, including in peace processes, democratic governance, education, economic development, gender-inclusive and peace-responsive approaches, justice and human rights, security, and so forth. We believe this is essential to addressing \u201cthe violence of exclusion\u201d that is described by young people themselves in The Missing Peace: by addressing all aspects of young people\u2019s lived experiences.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Interpeace\u2019s youth-centred strategy deliberately avoids romanticising, demonising, or patronising young people. We recognise that young people can be both actors in peace and participants in violence, not as a contradiction, but as a reflection of the complex environments they navigate. Our approach challenges securitised narratives that frame all youth as potential threats, and instead promotes a balanced, rights-based understanding that centres young people\u2019s lived realities. By investing in positive forms of resilience\u2014while acknowledging and constructively engaging with the factors that can lead some youth into violence\u2014we work to build peace and prevent violence in a complementary and holistic way.<\/p>\r\n \u00b7 Interpeace views the exclusion of young people from education, employment and civic participation not as indicators of vulnerability, but as missed opportunities to strengthen peace and resilience. We work with public institutions and partners to co-design concrete, youth-responsive programmes that promote inclusion, belonging, and agency. This approach is central to preventing violence\u2014not through securitised or reactive interventions, but by creating enabling environments where young people can thrive as contributors to peaceful, just and cohesive societies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n En 2021, Interpeace, avec le soutien du minist\u00e8re irlandais des Affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res, a command\u00e9 neuf notes d'orientation pour la s\u00e9rie; \u00ab Hors des sentiers battus : amplifier les voix et les points de vue des jeunes sur la politique et les pratiques de YPS \u00bb.<\/em><\/strong><\/a> Celles-ci ont toutes \u00e9t\u00e9 men\u00e9es par de jeunes artisans de la paix, universitaires ou praticiens, ou ont \u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e9tablies sur des recherches participatives ou des consultations avec des jeunes femmes et hommes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Elles se concentrent tous sur les lacunes des politiques et des pratiques dans l\u2019\u00e9volution et l\u2019application du programme YPS. Ces notes, publi\u00e9es ici, ne refl\u00e8tent pas n\u00e9cessairement les opinions d\u2019Interpeace, mais l\u2019organisation joue un r\u00f4le rassembleur en \u00e9tablissant une plateforme pour l'initiative et la voix non censur\u00e9e des jeunes eux-m\u00eames.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Interpeace est ravie d'avoir eu l'opportunit\u00e9 de collaborer et de r\u00e9unir d'\u00e9minents penseurs et praticiens de la politique de jeunesse \u00e0 travers ce dispositif d'apprentissage et de d\u00e9bat sur l'\u00e9volution du programme YPS.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCe que Nous Faisons<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Hors du cadre<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n