{"id":9739,"date":"2025-08-12T16:48:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/?p=9739"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:55:06","slug":"wanep-marks-international-youth-day-iyd-by-amplifying-youth-voices-in-peacebuilding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wanep-marks-international-youth-day-iyd-by-amplifying-youth-voices-in-peacebuilding\/","title":{"rendered":"WANEP Marks International Youth Day (IYD) by Amplifying Youth Voices in Peacebuilding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young people are among the major contributors to conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Their meaningful participation in these areas is essential to advancing the Youth, Peace and Security agenda, especially as countries across West and Central Africa work to localise the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2250 and the African Union Continental Framework on the Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) agenda.<\/p>\n

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As UNSCR 2250 marks its 10\u1d57\u02b0 anniversary and as part of International Youth Day, celebrated on 12 August each year, reflections are underway on the progress made and lessons learned in translating this agenda into concrete national strategies.<\/p>\n

In this context, WANEP commenced a series of activities aimed at empowering young people, fostering positive change, and strengthening their resilience. On 11 August 2025, WANEP, in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), jointly organised a virtual webinar. The event explored the theme\u00a0\u201cSharing Experiences, Shaping Policy: Amplifying Youth Voices in YPS NAP Development for the 10th Anniversary of UNSCR 2250<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0It spotlighted the National Action Plan (NAP) development journeys of Benin, Senegal, Liberia, and The Gambia, capturing valuable lessons from their distinct processes, particularly regarding meaningful youth engagement and fostering robust knowledge exchange among stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The webinar opened with remarks from Mr. David Omozuafoh, Regional Governance and Rule of Law Advisor at UNDP, who stressed that \u201cany effort to create lasting peace and resilience in Africa must place youth as active agents of change, as well as recipients of support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also speaking at the event, Mr Ifeanyi Okechukwu, Deputy Executive Director of WANEP, emphasised that \u201cthe young population presents an opportunity for future development, as they are a strong constituency not only to drive development but also to be recognised as key players in decision-making to address the peace and security challenges we face in our region.\u201d He reaffirmed WANEP\u2019s continued support for advancing the YPS process in nine West African countries \u2014 including The Gambia, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo \u2014 through technical assistance, advocacy, and partnership building. This work is undertaken in collaboration with the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UN DPPA), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, UNDP, and ECOWAS. He also highlighted the role of WANEP\u2019s National Secretariat in The Gambia in the development and publication of the country\u2019s YPS NAP 2020\u20132030, noting that \u201ccollaboration strengthens opportunities for policy and practice actualisation, which in turn reinforces the YPS agenda at sub-national, national, and regional levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Simone Diouf, African Youth for Peace Envoy representing West Africa, further underscored the importance of ensuring that \u201cNational Action Plans have a real impact and are monitored and supported by young people. These plans should not just be technical documents but living tools from which young people can derive concrete indicators.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The webinar further aimed to deepen understanding of local youth leadership and grassroots engagement, promote YPS NAP localisation and implementation, and produce evidence-based recommendations to inform a youth-centred policy brief for West and Central Africa.<\/p>\n

Over 130 participants joined the webinar, including representatives from UN agencies (UNFPA, UNDP), the African Union, youth leaders from Benin, Liberia, The Gambia, and Senegal, youth activists and youth-led organisations from West and Central Africa, civil society representatives, policymakers and government officials engaged in NAP development and implementation, researchers, academics, and experts on the YPS agenda, supporting peacebuilding and youth empowerment.<\/p>\n

Participants engaged with the panellists, shared perspectives, and asked pertinent questions to enriched the discourse.<\/p>\n

From the discussions, participants recommended the need to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Strengthen\u00a0the capacities of young people to enable their active participation in decision-making spaces and secure a genuine seat at the table.<\/li>\n
  2. Ensure\u00a0NAPs are credible and inclusive, positioning youth as principal contributors rather than occasional invitees.<\/li>\n
  3. Highlight and replicate\u00a0successful examples from the NAPs of Benin, Senegal, Liberia, and The Gambia to inspire improvement across the region.<\/li>\n
  4. Adopt and implement\u00a0realistic policies supported by adequate resources, avoiding overly ambitious commitments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A key outcome of the webinar will be the development of a policy brief highlighting the lessons and good practices of NAP development and implementation, to guide ongoing and future YPS initiatives across the African continent and beyond.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Young people are among the major contributors to conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Their meaningful participation in these areas is essential to advancing the Youth, Peace and Security agenda, especially as countries across West and Central Africa work to localise the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2250 and the African Union Continental Framework on the Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) agenda. As UNSCR 2250 marks its 10\u1d57\u02b0 anniversary and as part of International Youth Day, celebrated on 12 August each year, reflections are underway on the progress made and lessons learned in translating this agenda into concrete national strategies. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wanep-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9739"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9746,"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739\/revisions\/9746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanep.org\/wanep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}