Youth, Violence and Conflict Transformation
The Youth, Violence and Conflict Transformation: Exploring mobilization into violence and the role of youth in peacebuilding project is a six-year long research project funded by the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust exploring young people’s role in violence and conflict transformation.
Project Overview
Alarm caused by the burgeoning global youth population and young people’s potential roles in causing or sustaining conflict have been well documented, whilst their contribution to building peace is often overlooked. Young people often present a combative or destabilising force within post-conflict communities, but they also work on the frontlines of peacebuilding, contributing to the rebuilding of civil society and the local economy. Their lack of political representation and their marginalisation from decision-making in many conflict-affected societies explains why these positive contributions go unrecognised. The disparities that young people face in accessing economic, political and socio-cultural resources explains why the impact of youth peacebuilding activity is sometimes limited. Many young people also experience a ‘double’ marginalisation because of their gender, disability, religion or ethnic status, yet current literature and programming often fails to take account of this in seeking to understand barriers to youth participation.
Recognising that international actors are increasingly aware of the need to include young people more substantively in shaping society, this project currently addresses the question of how the peacebuilding sector might be enabled to fully integrate young people into activities geared towards political change and positive peace. This project therefore looks at how we can ensure that young people’s voices are listened to and acted upon in societies where youth marginalisation has previously been a factor facilitating their mobilisation into violence, and the responsibilities that are placed on others to create spaces for youth participation.
Project Objectives
- Youth participation in shaping the post-conflict environment
- The youth to adult transition in conflict-affected societies
- Youth, religion and the prevention of violent conflict in fragile contexts
The above objectives are covered through a case study-based approach and focuses on five conflict-affected contexts of Algeria, Colombia, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Iraq and Bosnia-Herzegovina. These five case studies allow us to study the nexus amongst youth, violence and conflict transformation in a comparative manner.