Amani Pamoja (Peace Together): A capacity building partnership for youth-led peace advocacy

ongoing

Youth organisations play a key role in building civic competences and enabling youth participation at all levels. Youth engagement is increasingly recognised and this led to new opportunities for their engagement. However, youth organisations struggle to fully harness them, and sustain youth meaningful participation, especially of those facing most barriers to engage. Additionally, there are seldom opportunities for exchange among youth organisations working in the field of and even less at cross-continental level. This project aims to 1) create a learning partnership of youth organisations working for peace, with a focus on six countries (Germany, Italy, Kenya, Spain, Tanzania, and Uganda), yet linking up with other initiatives, 2) to strengthen advocacy and policy dialogue skills, particularly among youth in violence-affected communities and those with fewer opportunities to engage; and, build the capacities of youth organisations to advocate for the Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) agenda in support of the EU Action Plan in EU External Action specific actions related to this agenda; 3) promote the participation of young people in peace and security spaces, and 4) raise awareness about youth-led efforts in peacebuilding and enabling policies and participation mechanisms. The activities are: 1) Youth exchange 1: a partnership-building and exchange among young peacebuilders from the six participating countries in Uganda; 2) Youth exchange 2: a training in advocacy and policy dialogue skills in Spain; 3) Youth participation activities in the six countries: young people will engage with public officials. Young people will learn together and also be co-leaders and speakers in events; and d) Implement a communication strategy to share about experiences of young peacebuilders and participation mechanisms, with specific target audiences: young people, young peacebuilders, policy makers. Activities 1-3 will include eight (8) events with cross-continental mobility.