Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange

Youth, Peace and Security - Weekly resources

Weekly video and supplement content is developed by Search for Common Ground and the United Network of Young Peacebuilders.

Prior to your online group meeting each week, you are expected to prepare by viewing this content and  submitting your weekly preparation assignment.

SUBMIT HERE >>>

For details see the COURSE MANUAL

Week 4: Taking Action, Together

Rafiu Adeniran Lawal | HagueTalks

Youth Building Peace in Nigeria

Youth participation in violence and criminality is on the high and this is as a result of the cultural, economic and political forms of exclusion experienced by youth. Nigerian youth are highly creative, knowledgeable, wise, energetic and innovative. There is an untapped ability in the Nigerian youth that can be leveraged upon if the nation will experience peace and development. They should be heard and considered as partners in progress.

“As youth, our biggest strength is our capacity to mobilize vulnerable youth and communities towards peacebuilding. All stakeholders must increase investment in youth and peacebuilding activities, be it through direct partnerships with youth-led organizations, developing the capacity of youth from diverse backgrounds, meaningfully including them in local, national, regional and international decision making, or by providing them with spaces to manifest their work.”

Rafiu Adeniran Lawal, passionate peace advocate and Founder and Executive Director of Building Blocks for Peace Foundation will talk about young people in his home country Nigeria.​ He will draw from a depth of experience in how he manages to build the resilience of these young people against violent philosophies and promoting sustainable peace.

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Catalina Salazar | HagueTalks

Hip-Hop for peace culture

Catalina believes in Youth and the power that it has to change things without any fear and to be able to think of a different world. They dare to dream, they have questions and they’re not afraid to answer them and doing something for their ideals. She talks about the potential of Hip-Hop, defending human rights and developing creativity along with the communities. Catalina Salazaris a political scientist from ​Chile​, dedicated to working with young people in innovating education processes. Her work with ​Social Hip Hop NGO illuminates the effective use of hip hop as a vehicle for youth engagement and dialogue in building peace.

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Search for Common Ground

Participatory Theatre

Search for Common Ground’s participatory theater model in action in Congo. The model invites villagers to explore and resolve local conflicts.

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Bassam Sebti |August 11, 2016

Youth and peacebuilding one act at a time

Aristotle once said “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference,”  and what a difference a group of young Lebanese men and women are making to advocate for peace to make a difference!

Their ages range between 16 to 25 years old. They are poor and unemployed. They once fought each other, literally, in their sectarian-divided Lebanese city of Tripoli. Sunni residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Alawite residents of Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods fought each other repeatedly.

But at the beginning of 2015, the government imposed a ceasefire that put an end to the endless rounds of fierce clashes and restored calm in the city….(continue reading)

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Prepare for your final discussion

Prepare for your final discussion

 

Examples of Peacebuilding

Videos this week showed examples of youth peacebuilding in Chile, Nigeria, Congo, and Lebanon, with dialogue, theater, art, and hip hop all being used as tools for peacebuilding.

  • What inspires you from these examples?
  • What role can creativity play in peacebuilding?
  • What other ‘tools’ can young peacebuilders be prepared to use?

Bringing it Home

Thinking locally to your own context, what type of peacebuilding action do you think is most needed there?

  • What work or action do you know about that is currently being done?
  • How are youth contributing / or not to the problem or solution?
  • What areas of influence do you have regarding this issue?
  • What have you learned or reflected on through this course that you want to take forward to the issues you care about?
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Week 3: Youth at the Center of Peace and Security

Search for Common Ground, United Network of Young Peacebuilders

We, the Young Peacebuilders: Youth Power 4 Peace

How are youth seen, and what roles are they playing to build peace? Hear from the UNOY African youth advocacy team on the accomlishment of SCR 2250 and what is next for pushing forward the youth, peace, and security agenda.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · TEDGlobal 2009

The danger of a single story

http://www.ted.com Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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The Progress Study

In December 2015, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted, under the leadership of Jordan, Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS), the first resolution fully dedicated to the important and positive role young women and men play in the maintenance and promotion of international peace and security.

Resolution 2250 requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations “to carry out a progress study on the youth’s positive contribution to peace processes and conflict resolution, in order to recommend effective responses at local, national, regional and international levels”, and to present the results of the Study to the United Nations Security Council and Member States.

See full background on the study, additional translations, and file download here.

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Additional Resources

Interested to learn more about this week’s topic? We have selected some additional optional materials for you.

S/RES/2250 (2015)

Young Peacebuilders in Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Poem on Youth, Peace and Security by Roxanna Azari

Youth, Peace and Security: New Global Perspectives

Guide to 2250

Searcher’s Seat with Shamil Idriss and Mena Ayazi | YPS Act

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Week 2: Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

Search for Common Ground, United Network of Young Peacebuilders

Transforming Conflict

What does transforming conflict mean in practice? Be a part of this conversation where core concepts and tools of peacebuilding and conflict transformation are discussed.

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Youth4Peace Training: 1.1 (continued)

The United Network of Young Peacebuilders’ (UNOY Peacebuilders) Youth4Peace Training Toolkit brings you through the concepts and practice of delivering trainings and activities on conflict transformation & peacebuilding.

Section 1.1 covers the basics on conflict transformation and peacebuilding:

 

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Additional Resources

Interested to learn more about this week’s topic? We have selected some additional optional materials for you.

What is Peacebuilding, Alliance for Peacebuilding

Conflict Analysis Framework: Field Guidelines and Procedures, GPPAC

Conflict transformation, Berghof Foundation

Conflict Styles Assessment, United States Institute of Peace

The Vaccine to End War, Lena Slachmuijlder | TEDxOudMetha

Strategic Peacebuilding Paths, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies

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Week 1: Conflict, Violence and peace - concepts & definitions

Search for Common Ground, United Network of Young Peacebuilders

Words Matter to Build Peace

There are many terms that get used when talking about conflict, violence, and peace. This video explores how young people and practitioners define these concepts, and why words matter when building peace.

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Shamil Idriss, CEO of Search For Common Ground (SFCG)

Conflict as opportunity

Shamil Idriss, CEO of Search For Common Ground (SFCG), sees in conflict the unique potential for collaborative problem solving. “Peace is more than the absence of tension, it’s the presence of justice,” quotes Idriss. “Conflict can be an opportunity for reaching out to understand the other and build a better future together.”

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Youth4Peace Training: 1.1

The United Network of Young Peacebuilders’ (UNOY Peacebuilders) Youth4Peace Training Toolkit brings you through the concepts and practice of delivering trainings and activities on conflict transformation & peacebuilding.

Section 1.1 covers the basics on conflict transformation and peacebuilding:

 

Watch Video

Additional Resources

Interested to learn more about this week’s topic? We have selected some additional optional materials for you.

“Global Peace Index 2019,” Institute for Economics and Peace

“Berghof Glossary on Conflict Transformation,” Berghof Foundation

Johan Galtung, “Cultural Violence” in Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 27, No. 3. (Aug., 1990), pp. 291-305

“How do we measure Peace?” Global Peace Index

“Peacebuilding Fundamentals,” Catholic Relief Services

‘Neighbours’ (1952) – Academy Award-winning Short Film by Norman McLaren (A commentary on Conflict Escalation)

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