Youth as Agent for Peace and Security

<< Background >>The project arose from the need to address the fact that current global events are increasingly preoccupying young people and that the issues of peace and security are omnipresent. Young people play a crucial role in shaping a peaceful future, but are often not taken into account in political decision-making processes on peace and security. The project responded to the need of youth organizations for exchange and information in this field and to the need to promote the self-efficacy of young people in times of multiple crises.<< Objectives >>The project had two main goals: 1. to strengthen the capacity of youth organizations to effectively participate in discussions and processes on youth, peace, and security, and 2. to help shape and inform policy developments in the field of youth, peace, and security at both the national and European levels.Within the framework of the project, OJV aimed to learn from the experiences of its Finnish partner organization, prepare relevant knowledge for actors in the youth sector, and strengthen their capacities. The Finnish Youth Council and Youth Sector Nuorisoala (previously Allianssi) used the project to expand its own lobbying work at the European level and to advocate for the mainstreaming of youth issues in European youth, peace, and security policy.<< Implementation >>The project included capacity-building workshops in Austria. These were attended by people from youth organizations who worked intensively on the project topic throughout the entire project period. This group took part in a study visit to Finland to learn about the experiences of the Finnish partners there.As part of European advocacy activities, webinars were held for youth organizations to discuss aspects of the YPS agenda with experts at the European level. In addition, a Finnish delegation from the YPS network traveled to Brussels to promote the YPS agenda to political decision-makers at the European level, among others. As part of an information and empowerment campaign, a brochure on the topic was developed and relevant publications were translated from Finnish into English.The project was rounded off by a two-part closing event: a discussion event in the Austrian Parliament with representatives of all parties represented in parliament, and an international meeting of UN youth delegates in Vienna with the participation of the chair of the Finnish YPS network.<< Results >>The concrete outputs of the project were the translation of relevant publications from Finnish into English, which are now available to a wider audience. The closing event in the Austrian Parliament, an online campaign, and the creation and distribution of a brochure helped draw a lot of attention to the topic of “youth, peace, and security” and to the project itself.In addition, a comprehensive understanding of peace and security from the perspective of young people was developed, from which concrete demands were derived and recorded by OJV in a position paper entitled “Growing up in peace and security.” The project challenged the one-dimensional understanding of security, which often focuses exclusively on defense, and the understanding of peace as the mere absence of war. All these results contributed to expanding the expertise of youth organizations in the field of youth, peace, and security, strengthening young people as co-creators in the field of peace and security, and helping to shape political developments at the national and European levels.