Exchange on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS)
Reaffirming its commitment in the Stockholm Declaration to recognize and harness the positive potential of youth in peacebuilding and statebuilding, the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS) utilized its unique position as a tri-partite platform to organize a 1.5-day dialogue and exchange on opportunities for increasing youth-responsive engagement in contributing to peacebuilding and statebuilding on 24-25 April in Amman, Jordan. This event was organized in collaboration with the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the Global Coalition on Youth, Peace, and Security (GCYPS), Search for Common Ground, the Civil Society Platform on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS) and through the generous support of the Government of Canada.
The exchange provided a platform for 70 participants representing 21 different countries, including youth peacebuilders, Member States, civil society organizations, regional organizations, UN entities, and philanthropic foundations. They shared experiences, best practices, and recommendations, fostering intergenerational learning, exchange, and collaboration between policymakers, development partners, and youth representatives. This aimed to catalyze learning and networking to support more youth-inclusive peacebuilding and statebuilding initiatives and international assistance.
The dialogue also offered two workshop sessions:
- The Regional Peace and Development Advisor for the Arab States, facilitated a tailored version of the UNDP Prevention Academy, providing an opportunity for youth peacebuilders to broaden their knowledge of conflict sensitivity tools that can be applied to their YPS approaches.
- The Swedish Dialogue Institute, the Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation invited government participants for an informal workshop to discuss next steps from the event, including through meaningful intergenerational dialogue, building on the recent SDI-FBA Guidance Note on Intergenerational Dialogue.