Young people and youth-led organizations can and do play a critical role in building and sustaining peace. The Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda, catalyzed by the United Nations Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 2250 (2015) and subsequent resolutions, aims to recognize and support young people in broader efforts to build peaceful and inclusive societies. Young people make up a significant proportion of the population in conflict-affected and fragile settings, yet despite growing commitments to the YPS agenda, their role and contributions are often not prioritized in peacebuilding and prevention approaches.
Ensuring adequate financing has been a central concern for the YPS agenda since its inception. Yet so far discussions on how to improve the quantity and quality of resources have been fairly limited. The UN Secretary-General’s first Report on Youth, Peace and Security in 2020 noted that despite some progress inadequate resourcing and data are still major challenges. This report – which echoes these findings - uses available quantitative and qualitative evidence from UN and civil society sources to delve deeper into recent trends, challenges and opportunities to better finance the role of young people in peacebuilding and prevention. Its goal is to aid policymakers and other stakeholders in identifying key areas where more action is needed to make concrete progress. The paper is divided into three main sections:
Acknowledgement
Published December 2021. The development of this paper was coordinated by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and produced in collaboration with Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Life & Peace Institute, Search for Common Ground, United Network of Young Peacebuilders, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs - Peacebuilding Support Office (DPPA/PBSO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
The current draft of this paper is meant as an input into the 2022 United Nations Secretary-General reports on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace and on Youth Peace and Security, as well as an input into the preparation for the UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on Financing for Peacebuilding in 2022.
