Building open spaces for youth participation in peace building processes in Cameroon.
Cameroon has been in a state of turmoil for the past 4years and this has been blamed on youths. It is important to build open spaces for youth participation in peace building processes in Cameroon. The key actors are: youth leaders, traditional and religious leaders, including the queens for peace. It is worth noting that this project falls in line with one of the organization’s key sphere of interest, which is “Empowering Youths For The Next Generation”. The project as well goes to complement the provisions of the Landmark UN Resolution 2250 on Youth Peace and Security, which emphasizes the importance of youths as agents of change in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.
This project has as objective to build the capacities of youth leaders in these two regions in peace building and conflict resolution values and conflict prevention, and to equip young people with skills that will enable them to carry out community connectors for peace activities. Specifically, the project will enable the localization SDG 16 on Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies as a recommendation of WAA-GPPAC report on National Voluntary Review for Inclusive Community Dialogue and Talks, and the empowerment of cultural and religious leaders to support the peace building efforts of youths in their communities.
The Month of August 2020 witnessed the first phase of the implementing period, wherein 100 youths were trained on peace building and conflict resolution in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon (North- West and South-West regions).
BAMENDA, N.W REGION
BUEA, S.W REGION
PHASE II
WAA Cameroon in conjunction with its associates IFA ZIVIK and GPPAC are here again, meting up to the expectations of goal 16 on Peace, Justice and Inclusive Societies of the SDGs, thus paving the way for long lasting peace in Cameroon. These organizations have been working in synergy since last year, in a project entitled “Building Open Spaces for Youth participation in in Peace Building and Conflict Prevention in Cameroon”.
This is the phase 2 of the project and it seeks to not only prevent youth from engaging in violence and be recruited into armed groups, but also to promote inclusiveness in peace processes by preventing further occurrence of crisis through scaling up the positive outcomes of phase 1 funded by Ifa-Zivick, and currently being implemented in the North and South West. The project’s ultimate overall change is that peace and stability is established across Cameroon and most especially in the two conflict-prone English-speaking regions.
This phase will intervene in endorsing communal trust rebuilding and dialogue, enhancing the capacity of media organs on crisis and conflict prevention reporting strategies, supporting skills development activities for connectors for peace, as an alternative to violence, developing a community-based and intergenerational team which will help in crisis prevention and conflict resurgence, just to name a few.
We are leaving no one behind; we are “redesigning the tables for peace”!!!!
