 So, ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to the United States Institute of Peace. My name is Bill Taylor. I'm the Executive Vice President here at the Institute of Peace, and I'm very pleased to have you here for this discussion and kickoff of a big event in all of UN and all of the international sphere. The 2250 and the role of youth could not be more important. So the Institute of Peace is very pleased to be able to host you and host this discussion. The Institute of Peace, of course, has been around for over 30 years. Congress established this to focus on nonviolent dispute resolution. And so we believe that peace actually is possible and peace is practical. We believe that peace is important for both U.S. national security and international security. So this is our commitment. Youth could not be more important or central to this. Just yesterday, sitting right here was His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He had many good things to say to us, but he also had many good things to say to a group of young people and some USIP people in Dharamsala two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Many of whom, many people in this audience were with that group. He spent time with a group of USIP-sponsored fellows, generation change fellows. If you watched the slideshow just before we started here and if you were paying particular attention, you will notice on the stage here a little bit some familiar faces. Our moderator was fixed here. Our next speaker was in this picture here. Generation change sponsored by the Institute of Peace is a program that brings together young people from a lot of conflict-inflicted countries. And they are the leaders. They are becoming leaders of conflict resolution. One of the Godmothers of Generation Change is our next speaker. So Manal Omar, whom you may have spotted up there, you will recognize in a minute, is our Associate Vice President here at the Institute of Peace. Manal is a leader in this sphere as well as several spheres as you will hear in a moment. This is an opportunity for us to kick this off. We're very pleased, again, to have you here. And Manal, please continue the work. Thank you, Ambassador Taylor. And thank you and welcome to everyone here today. Very happy to be here. And I want to echo Ambassador Taylor and welcome you into this building. I always say it's great to be in the middle of all the war memorials, to have a big building dedicated to peace, to remind us that there's another way to deal with conflict. I also want to recognize that we have Ambassador Dina Kaurar, the permanent representative of Jordan to the United Nations. And I hear she'll be the new ambassador to DC. So welcome. Also, we have Ambassador Ahmad El-Hindawi, who is the United Nations General Secretary's envoy on youth. Very appropriate. And I'd like to welcome our colleagues from the Department of State and USAID. A special welcome to the members of the interagency working group on youth and peace building who worked tremendously hard to make this happen. And I want to give special recognition to our youth leaders. We have several youth leaders, both from the World Bank, from Yali, and from USIP's program, Generation Change. I'd actually like to ask you to stand up, because I think it's really important to recognize you and to thank you for your amazing work. So the youth leaders in the room, thank you for the tremendous work that you do every day. I'm proud to say that USIP has a long history of engaging youth. We've already mentioned one program, which is Generation Change, which really looks at working to strengthen the capacity of young peace builders as they transform communities across Middle East and Africa. And I'm not ashamed to admit that USIP doesn't do anything to create these leaders. These leaders exist in their own right. They're on the ground. They're powerful. The only thing we've done is come and work to support them, build capacity and network between the different conflict zones. But each and every one of them has always been a leader and has always led, whether they're alone or within a larger network to initiate change in their community. I want to thank the hard work of the many of the people in this room who've made the Security Council possible. And it's really a platform for allow us to elevate the role of youth in peace and security. Now it's no secret for those of you who know me in the room that I have a bias when it comes to women and youth. And I can't emphasize enough, it's not a nice thing to do. It is absolutely necessary if we believe in sustainable peace. So when we talk about investing in youth, we're not doing youth a favor. The reality is, it's a true strategic way for us to have sustainable change on the ground, not only in conflict zones, but when we're looking at the positive in terms of transitions and growth. It is with this spirit that we are proud to be part of the launch today of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2250. This resolution makes a historic achievement. It recognizes the critical and positive role of youth in promoting and maintaining international peace and security, as well as a key moment and challenge for the international community, including US government agencies, to think about how they are truly prioritizing youth in peace building. As we know, many of these youths are living in countries plagued by violent conflict and extremism. The numbers are astounding. Today's generation of youth, which we know is 1.8 billion, is the largest the world has ever known. And in today's environment, when everything is seen through a securities lens, it's really easy to look at those numbers and to try and build up a sense of panic. You hear these questions all the time. Even the language we use. We talk about a youth bulge. We talk about them as a problem. How are we going to handle this youth bulge? How can we work with youth who are being co-opted by violent extremism? What do we do with all the youth who are unemployed? But what we're missing from these questions and from this debate is the obvious fact that youth are actually the solution. They're actually the answer to the questions that we're trying to raise. Having traveled and worked extensively across conflict zones, what I have witnessed is that youth aren't only at the front lines, but they are the keepers of the hope of communities. And so when we're investing in them, we're investing in the hope for tomorrow. And their action starts today. And even in the most remote areas and some of the most violent conflicts of the world, you will always find youth groups, whether they're formal or informal. They're there. They're on the ground. And they're dreaming about change. And as each of one of us who knows a lot of us have worked with youth, their dreams are contagious. And they inspire us to take action to really be able to find permanent solutions to problems as they arise. So I challenge you. Let's not talk about them as a problem. Let's talk about them as a solution. Let's talk about them not as a youth bulge, but as a youth surge, real access to important human resources and talent on the ground. What I've witnessed is that they are innovative. They find solutions with limited resources. And not only they inspire change, but they actually lead change. Now, I'm a huge believer in having the difficult conversations. And with that in mind, I realize that we are not the only ones to recognize the potential of youth. More and more data indicates violent extremist groups are targeting younger and younger in an attempt to indoctrinate people from a young age with violent ideologies. But ideology is not the only threat that the youth face. Stagnation and inaction are often the primary reason cited to me during my interviews about why youth consider joining violent extremist groups. Youth are awake, they're powerful, and they're realizing that the injustices that the world is seeing will only lead to further humanitarian disasters if change does not happen. So they are demanding change. They're insisting on accountability. And they are beseeching us to wake up and to talk about inclusivity. And in many communities across the world, they're falling on deaf ears, with the few promises being made, made by violent extremist groups. Chet's is the story of one young woman from Generation Change who's based in Kenya. She shared the story of the death of a very close friend that she had known from childhood. A young Muslim man in Kenya, he had been shot going to Friday prayer. The police had said that he was a suspected terrorist and that it was in the name of security that the attack had taken place. But she knew in her heart of hearts that her friend was not a terrorist and was not tied to any violent extremist groups. And she was angry. She wanted to hold the police accountable. And she told me the only people she knew who could truly hold the national police accountable was El Shabab. So she considered joining them. What I told her is what I tell youth that I work with all the time, you should be angry. You should be outraged. We all should be. When we see the injustices on the headlines, we should all be angry. But the reality is we should never be violent. We need to find ways to turn to nonviolent tools to initiate those change. And again, it's not just about a nice thing to do. I don't say let's all hold hands so no one can hold a gun. It's about strategy. We've seen the data showing that nonviolent resistance has a longer, more sustainable impact than any violent revolution. Violent revolutions within a few years fall back into violence. So again, youth have already figured out that the nonviolent path is the best and most strategic path. The reality is that telling youth that nonviolence is the best path isn't always a good sell. It's really hard when we talk about nonviolence and tell youth to put down their guns when our first reaction as an international community is often violence. Whether it's military action or just look at who we invite to the negotiating table. It's people with arms. Reroll model the value of violence. So the shift can only be talked about on the ground and needs to also be talked about within the international community and how we handle violence. And that's why I was so inspired by the working group that came together on Resolution 2250. What I saw was people very dedicated to the commitment of working on youth peace and security but also refusing to wear rose colored glasses. They recognize the risks that were being associated and they recognize the difficulty of nonviolent movement and supporting youth on the ground. They also recognize the potential pitfalls. And we know the pitfalls well too, right? First and foremost, heads of state will say we passed the resolution, congratulations. We gave a nod to youth and then back to business. We also know that there's always the risk that youth will be instrumentalized for political agendas. And my biggest fear and one of the things that keeps me up at night is the fear and the reality that as we promote young authentic voices we may actually be turning them into targets. And so with this, the working group has been really working carefully to address these pitfalls and more to think about ways to really operationalize a resolution so it's not just ink on paper and to be dedicated to learning lessons. For example, for UN Resolution 1325 on women peace and security and to bring in these lessons to really give youth a chance at true success. Everyone today will emphasize that the UN Resolution was not the end in itself. In fact, it is a springboard to launch into programs that truly make a difference where we are providing an enabling environment to support youth leadership in conflict zones with youth at the forefront. It is for this very reason that the panel today that you will see is all made of youth themselves. And as much as I'd like to consider myself the 40 year old millennial, I can no longer speak on youth. I don't fit into that category. So we must resist that temptation to speak on their behalf. Our job is to always pass the mic. And as you will see today, they have their own powerful voices, their own important experience and their innovative solutions that we can actually learn from, not just teach, it's important we're here to learn from the youth. The reality is that my work, I probably gain more than I offer them when we work together. In passing the microphone, we also want to ensure that we don't set them up for failure by putting them at the front lines alone. We need to stand by with them, sharing the lessons learned, sharing the experiences in a multi-directional exchange, as well as offering coaching and mentoring when possible. It is for this reason that the next speaker, I'm very happy to introduce, who was a true champion of the UN Resolution 2250. And we all know that the resolution would not have passed if it had not been through the adoption of the country of Jordan taking the lead and championing it. So I'd like to introduce Ambassador Dina Kaurwar. It's a pleasure to have you here at the US Institute of Peace. As I mentioned, she's the permanent representative for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the United Nations. She has led the Jordan delegation during Jordan's membership in the Security Council, which makes her the first Arab woman to ever preside over the Council. In February 2016, she was appointed by the President of the General Assembly as a co-facilitator for the high-level meeting of the Plenary of General Assembly. She was also awarded, among many other decorations, the Medal of Independence of the First Degree by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan. Please, Ambassador, welcome. Thank you, Manal. Thank you for this introduction and thank you for your words, because I think you've covered the issue so well that now we can go home, you know? But having said that, I'm going to speak a little bit about my experience in the Security Council and the work we've done on youth. But first of all, let me just say that I'm so happy to see my colleagues from the UN, Ahmed Hindawi, who incidentally is Jordanian, and he's the youth envoy. And I don't agree that at 50 we stop being youth. I think youth is also a spirit and a mindset. And so it's very important that that is there. And I see Cicille, who's from the peace building. And I want to also welcome all the interagency and the peace builders and Nassari, who I saw and I know from New York. So having said that, the issue of youth, when you think, when you look at the Arab world and you see that 70% of the Arab world is youth, 70% is a huge number. And when you look at the Middle East, and because I'm talking about the Middle East, given that I know it so well and I represent an Arab country, you see that the issues that concern the youth with the conflict ongoing, with the refugees ongoing, with the whole issue of education, employment, all of that, the youth is a major, major part of society. And we need, I agree with Manal, we need to address this issue, not as a favor, but as a self-protection, as a way of survival. We cannot ignore this part of society. So when I worked in the council, we were looking at conflicts day in, day out, and conflicts about, there was the issue of terrorism and what is going on in the world. And what strikes most of us is that we gave so much attention to the issue of youth and terrorism. And it is so unfair. I'll tell you why it's so unfair, because the number of youth who have been led and misleaded into terrorist acts is such a minority, but the whole image of youth became associated with violence, with terrorism, with fear. And this is not the way it has to be. And part of the reason why Jordan wanted to work on this issue is because the Crown Prince, Prince Hussein wanted to take the lead on the issue of youth. And luckily with our envoy Ahmed and Cecile, the peace building and the UN community, we had this task and really an honor to try to get this resolution through. Now for those of you who do know the Security Council and how it works, issues of development, themes as such are not highly welcome. They like conflict resolution. They like to work on a specific state, on a specific issue. But if you start to talk about development, already the issue of women was like, it was like the pill that had to be swallowed and then 10 years later we see the results. However, I must say and I must admit that the issue of youth when we did present it, we had to push here and there and use all the tricks, but it did go through because there was a consensus among all the Security Council members that the issue of youth becoming peace builders is an important thing. I won't talk too much about the resolution because I'm probably happy that it will be discussed by our two presenters who are coming after me, but I wanted just to say that this is a newly born resolution and it's just the beginning. Either it will die and become a very nice reference to which we say, well, resolution 2250 or we can have it as a useful instrument in our hands and we hope that it will become a useful instrument in our hands. We want that, we really want that. And for that to happen, we really need to work on the study that the peace builders are doing and this study is due in two years. It's a study that we're trying to get the funding for that will identify how to go about in acting this resolution. And we also need to stress in all our Security Council meetings and all of our UN meetings about the importance of this field. So definitely, I am very proud to have been a beginner in this resolution, but this is just a part of it. The Crown Prince, just a few words on what he has done. He has wanted to push the agenda of youth because himself, he's a young man and he realizes all the dimensions that are related to this very important issue. So we did pass the resolution and in August that same year, 2015, there was this big, very important forum in Jordan to which some of you have been, I guess. And we hope that next year or next year, this year, at the end of this year, when we celebrate the first year of this resolution that we would be able to do some events. I will not be in New York, but I'll be here and we hope that we can celebrate it to make it a lot. So I thank you all for your interest and I'm glad that all the youth are here. I ask of you to make it live. It's a toddler, but we need to make it continue and we need to push the agenda. Thank you, Manal, for inviting me. Thank you. Thank you, Ambassador, and thank you for extending youth. We can reclaim that title. I'm excited to introduce our next speaker, is Saji Prelis and it's my great pleasure to introduce him. He's the director for children and youth programs at Search for Common Ground and he's also the founding co-chair of the UN Interagency Working Group on Youth and Peace Building which played an instrumental role in passing this resolution. I've been able to see Saji in action as co-chair and have and continue to learn a lot from them on this very important issue of youth and peace building, particularly because he has over 20 years' experience working with youth movements and youth-focused organizations in various conflict, crisis, and transition environments. He has advised governments and civil society actors in developing training programs and drafting policy frameworks as well as designing community programs for full participation. So welcome, Saji, please. Thank you, Manal. Before I get started, just looking around the room, it's really, really exciting to see this amazing group of, a sea of people who are very interested and passionate and committed to this topic of supporting and investing in young people as partners in peace. And I also want to welcome you and also welcome all the folks who are joining us online as well. But before we get started, I also want to acknowledge the tremendous leadership and commitment the US Institute for Peace has also made in helping to launch this event here. And to make that happen, this is not just USIP, but it's a collective effort of a number of organizations, UN and civil society organizations who have partnered with US Institute for Peace to make this happen. So thank you to all the agencies to bring this to life. Manal, you set the stage pretty well around the topic that we are here for. And I wanted to take a minute to also reflect on that because you talked about the youth bulge and the purpose of the resolution is translating this youth bulge into the peace bulge. It really is. So I want to highlight four significant turning points that happened in 2015 that actually led to the resolution itself. The first one happened in April. Under the leadership of the ambassador and the Kingdom of Jordan, hosted in April at the Security Council, the first open debate on the role of young people in countering violent extremism and promoting peace. It was the first debate like that on this topic. But then Jordan didn't stop there. They actually then committed to the second turning point. The second turning point was there as the ambassador mentioned was in Amman, Jordan in September, August, August. In August, over two days, brought together a number of key leaders from around the world and hundreds of young people who are in the front lines of peace building to come together to organize this thing called the Amman Youth Forum on Youth, Peace and Security. In that forum, young people engaged over 11,000 young people from around the world to develop the first Amman Declaration on Youth, Peace and Security. It was a huge turning point for young people to articulate a vision for how they should be represented and the voices they are making. That was the second turning point. The month after that in September, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, thanks to the US government, the State Department, we organized the first again, the first young people's role in countering violent extremism and promoting peace, Global Summit, there in front of over 700 people and youth from 70 different countries who came together, who crafted again the Youth Action Agenda to prevent violent extremism and promote peace. It's the first time young people actually defined what violent extremism means to them and their role in preventing violent extremism. It was a significant turning point where young people are actually articulating the policies that matter to them and the experiences that actually enable those policies to come to life. That was in September. And then the other turning point was throughout this year, the amazing work of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth member states were involved with engaging the ministers and heads of government and heads of states in supporting and enabling the Commonwealth countries to also engage its youthful populations as partners was a turning point. At the same time, UN agencies and civil society organizations also came together to say, we're not doing business as usual. That was a significant moment when all of these collective voices became a collective wisdom that led then in December to the unanimous adoption of this amazing document, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250. It was a huge turning point. But to make that happen, Ambassador Kaua, we would not be here today if not for you and the Crown Prince's leadership. You gave voice to over 600 million young people. You brought their aspirations, their struggles and the 600 million young peace builders voices to one of the most powerful bodies in the world, the Security Council. And you've got them to recognize the investment that they need to have, the global community needs to have in partnering with young people. Thank you for bringing voice and mission and spirit of young people to that powerful body and recognizing the positive role they play. So thank you for your leadership in that. Please join me in thanking her because that was a tremendous accomplishment. The other, the ingredients I wanna reflect on a bit that helped us tremendously in making this happen over the last four years as a collective body. The first organizations, for the first time actually, removing our organizational mandates. I'm the UN, I'm the search for common ground. I am this, I'm that and saying, no, I'm for something much bigger than that. We are trying to turn the curve on how young people are viewed, how young people are engaged, how we invest in young people. And we collectively made this happen. Organizations coming together at the UN level, civil society level, donor level, and youth level, coming together as partners to advocate for a process and a commitment to young people. And that's one of the significant turning points that actually led to this resolution. And I wanna acknowledge and thank all the organizations who committed to that and tirelessly worked to making it happen. So with that in mind, I wanted to really get the conversation started. You don't wanna be listening to me. Like Manal said, you wanna be listening and learning from the young people who were actually on the front lines on this conversation. So I wanna invite the panelists to come to the stage right now and I will introduce them after they sit down. Please, first I will start with on the far left. For those who don't know who he is, maybe you've been living not in this place. Ahmed Alindavi, when he was appointed by the Secretary-General was the youngest envoy at the UN who has worked very tirelessly to break the bureaucracies of the UN, open the doors, open those hallways to make sure that young people's voices are heard. But not just voices, sir, but getting young people to be part of those policy discussions, to get member states to listen to young people, to shift the narrative and shift the perception, shift the fears people have about all young people playing in peace issues and security issues. So Ahmed, you've been an amazing, amazing leader for us. He's not just the envoy on youth for the Secretary-General, he's the envoy for all of us. So thank you for your leadership also. Second, I wanna introduce to you Saba Ismail who is the co-founder from Pakistan for Aware Girls, a young women's led organization in Pakistan who has been pioneering young people's role, not just involving young women, but involving young men as well in the front lines, in the tragedies that young people are facing in Pakistan, they've been the big light that actually enable people to enable, have conversations at the village level, local level, to challenge violent extremism in a very constructive way. And if I'm not incorrect here, our famous Malala was also part of your program who got her start with Aware Girls. She also is the foreign policy magazine recognized her heroic efforts and named her one of the 100 most influential thinkers in 2013. Thank you for being here Saba. Third, I would like to introduce you to Ms. Victoria Bivari from Nigeria. She's the founder and director of One Africa Child Foundation in Nigeria. She's working in one of the most marginalized communities in Nigeria, working with young people. She's also the focal point for West Africa and Central Africa and for the UN major group on children and youth. And she's deeply committed to enabling young people at the grassroots level to have a voice at the table, to enable them to be actually part of the process, not just be seen as the problems of victims of society. So thank you for being here also, Victoria. And to honor this as a youth panel, I'm gonna also then introduce to you Ms. Sukaina Hamia who is gonna be our moderator for this discussion. Sukaina is from Morocco. She's the deputy director for City Mumbai Cultural Center. She also, at the center, works in one of the largest slums in Morocco with one of the most marginalized young populations in the country. And with her efforts, she's actually trying to bring hope. She's also trying to make sure that young people have a voice in public discourse. Victoria and Sukaina are also members of the USIP Youth Exchange Network also. So without further ado, please join me in welcoming them and asking them to take it over. Thank you. Okay, so, Ahmad. Could you speak a bit about the UN resolution, 2250, and the plans to operationalize the resolution? Well, thank you, Sukaina. Thank you, Sajie, as well. And thanks to the US Institute of Peace and my friend Manal for your leadership and Basil Taylor and, of course, and Basil Hawa and all the colleagues. And to the many familiar faces who came here and show other faces, that will become familiar. So if you'll stick around this conversation on youth peace and security. I started to introduce basically a panoramic overview of major milestones leading up to the resolution. But why this resolution is important because I think it was said already that this is the first time we are marking a shift in the narrative from the whole things that we keep talking about youth are peace builders, assets to their community, opportunity and liability, and then getting the security council to acknowledge that. As Ambassador Hawa said, it's not a favorite topic for the security council to bring youth issues and development issues to the floor. Although, I mean, whenever youth were mentioned, the security council, they used to come as foreign fighters, as part of problems, perpetrators, victims. So shifting that narrative, and we have to remember the multilateral system is conservative by nature, trying to push things or change things. And if we can't get to the security council and challenge that narrative and change it, so better do it everywhere else. And there's no excuse of changing this narrative then and trickling it down at the national and local level. So with the resolution, and I'm not sure how many of you was a fan of reading your resolutions, but you should read this one at least. It's a very good piece of work, in fact. And sometimes I keep telling it's a youth organization or a youth conference who would write a resolution like that, it would not come from a security council because it's so user friendly. And the way is the structure of five key elements that I'm going to talk about. But also, and it's a lesson for all of us who are very skeptical about youth work in the world. There are many people who keep saying like, what happens to our resolutions? What happens to the youth declarations? We keep meeting and sending declarations and recommendations, and nobody listens to us. And I think what we learned in this process that Sajju described, we learned that when we do it, try it, when we play smart and we are with strategic enough, we can get things done, even from the security council. I think it was very strategic thanks to the whole process that was designed with the leadership of Jordan and all the colleagues in the UN, UN Game, Peace Pelders of moving from a feast to another and connecting the dots together and having 11,000 people contributing to the Amaniut Declaration. And then the commitment of the Conference of Jordan that we're going to bring that resolution back to the floor of the Security Council. So the process was designed in a way that is something for all of us to be proud of and for all young people who keep saying like what happens to our resolution? What happens to our recommendations? I think this is a good lesson learned. Like when we play it well, when we are strategic enough, we can get things done. That's first. Second is about the five elements in the resolution. Although when you read the resolution, which I again encourage you to read it, you will find them in a different order. But my favorite order is starting with the prevention. Talk about prevention and all the city supermajors and procedures that are proposed by the Security Council to work in the prevention. Because we have to remember the best thing we could do is to prevent conflicts from day one and make sure that we don't go to the stage where we have to talk about keeping peace and peacekeeping operations or post conflicts and peace building. The best thing is to start with peace building and the culture of peace from an early stage. So prevention is an important element. Second element of the resolution talks about protection. If things happen, we have a war and then we have to talk about the protections and make sure that what I keep referring to as the black hole in peace building efforts, that youth age group that we don't have data collection about, don't have programs designed to them, even in the whole discussion around the humanitarian response we keep talking about, expanding from the shelter, food, et cetera, health services to offer education. Even with that, all what we could manage to do is primary education. I think this resolution also offers a statement for going further with covering that youth age group which are more vulnerable to be recruited by others and I will not go to start talking about the vulnerability of young people in peace and basically in conflict settings, but it's obvious when you have a young person who is sitting in a refugee camp in other places where they are offered a salary three to four times higher than the average salary in their countries by terrorist organizations and others, there's a chain of vulnerability. To break that chain, I think the resolution offers a few good recommendations there. The third element comes with that, we talk about the participation and I think the line of the Secretary General who keeps saying it's not fair to send young people to die in conflicts, but when it comes to negotiations, you don't see them around the table. And most of these countries who are, even if we refer to Yemen, Syria, some of these conflicts, the whole thing started with youth calls and youth and now we are seeing that we see very little participation from young people around the negotiating table. I think this resolution offering an instrument even for the negotiators, even for the political invoice to make sure that youth participation in these peace talks is not an afterthought, but it's an integral part of designing the peace talks in the first place. The fourth element is partnership and the need of all of us to come together which is already have their increased resources. And number five, which is very relevant, I was just in the Central African Republic two weeks ago and what you learn there, what you learn in Somalia, that peace building starts with disengagement and reintegration because for many people who ended up joining these groups, they find a way back, they find an exit from these groups and then disengagement and reintegration by offering turn as if it's important. And that is part, I'm sorry for taking so long, I just feel like so obliged of talking about the five elements. I think it's very important to us because we keep referring to 2250, but inside 2250 there are five concrete elements that they cover the cycle very well, they cover the intervention that we need and it reduces a total upgrade for the way we think about young people in peace building context and peace and security agenda, the whole broader agenda of peace and security in a totally different spirit. So, should put to the Security Council, should put to the international community, multilateral system for taking us to a totally different place because honestly, even if it was a youth forum who issued that resolution, I would still think like, I couldn't believe it come from the Security Council with all the conservative nature, how things run, that's to the very able negotiation skills of Ambassador Karawar and her colleagues at the mission and here where we are launching it and usually the Security Council resolution don't get the launching events, usually they are adopted, chk, move, then Yemen, Syria and they'll keep moving but this time we are taking our time to celebrate because there's something to celebrate here and hopefully this will trickle down to implementation. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Ahmad. Sabah, could you tell us about your work? Sure, thank you, Sukena and thank you so much Ahmad Sajee and Ambassador Karawar for giving such insightful insights. I'm a young peace activist from Pakistan working to prevent violent extremism and promote peace in the Kheber-Bukhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is an area which has been long affected by religious extremism and conflict for almost two decades now. In 2002, at the age of 15, I along with my sister established Aware Girls which is a young women led organization working to prevent violent extremism using a peer-to-peer education model, in which we reach out to young people who further reach out to other young people who are vulnerable to be recruited by the militant groups and who are vulnerable to the violent ideologies and we give them alternative narratives that are based on non-violence, tolerance, compassion and pluralism and we are preventing them from getting recruited by the militant groups. Aware Girls conducted a baseline survey in the community to find the trends of extremism and tolerance and violence among young people and I will share only a few statistics here. More than 45% people supported the Taliban ideology in our community and 82% of youth said that they will martyre their lives. They would really like to martyre their lives for Islam if they ever get any opportunity in their lives. Every second person was of the opinion that use of violence as a religious and political tool is okay and 52% people do not believe in the equal rights of people of other religions to have equal worship places in my community. So in that environment, we are actually working to create an environment where there is no space for violent ideologies and with the environment which is more conducive for peace building and coexistence and non-violence. We are working on preventing violent extremism through creating and amplifying narratives of non-violence and narratives of coexistence and narratives of peace. We identify young people as partners in peace building processes. We organize them in groups. We provide them capacity building opportunities. We train them and then they go back into their communities. They engage their peers by providing them alternative narratives and by engaging them in conversations to help them make better informed non-violent choices. We engage both young men and young women in our programs because we believe that and we actually experience firsthand the differentiated impact conflict has on both young men and young women and we also as research has shown that gender equal societies are more resilient to conflict and violent extremism. Young people like me are proving it on daily basis that we are not just the victims, we are not the perpetrators, but we are the important actors in peace building and preventing violent extremism. Through our work, we are touching the lives of thousands of young people in our communities. 52% of the young people disagreed that every religion should have the freedom and right of establishing their worship places as I shared earlier with 90% agreed after training showing a very large positive impact towards pluralism and tolerance. In 2009, we started this program and we were having only 30 members, but now we have 20 active members, a Oliver Pakistan and Afghanistan and I believe we are reaching more than 3000 young people. Networks like Youth Peace Network are very important and it make youth feel significant. It also helps them dream better in their lives and it also contributes towards their thoughts so that they can contribute meaningfully towards justice and equity in their communities. And yes, I would like to mention that few of these groups are supported by USIP. Okay, thank you, Saba. So, Saba, you have worked in the civil society sector for many years. So in your experience, how does the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 impact the work of civil society organizations? Yes, so coming to that actually as I shared earlier that young people are doing a lot of stuff at the grass root level, so besides the work that we are doing at the grass root level, young people are pushing the global boundaries and that's why in December when we had the UN Resolution 2250, it recognized the role of young people in as important actors in peace building and youth led organizations, especially like United Network of Young Peace Builders, which is a global network of peace building organization just like Aware Girls was one of the major forces behind this resolution. And UNIY and other organizations, we worked in close partnership with other civil society organization, notably Search for Common Ground, World Vision with other UN partners, including Ahmad, Ambassador Kaur, Peace Building Support Office, UN, FBA, UNDP. So we actually all together, we work to strengthen the recognition of young people as partners. And we actually also are very thankful to Ambassador Kaur for bringing this resolution to the Security Council. Because of this resolution, the young people like me are very hopeful because for the first time in the history, UN adopted a resolution that focuses entirely on young people, on both young men and young women in peace building and it also recognizes that we, young people, both young men and young women are not just the victims or the perpetrators, but we are very important actors in peace building processes. Peace cannot be achieved without us. Peace has to be achieved with us, through us and for us. So the resolution recognizes the urgent need to engage young peace builder in promoting peace and countering extremism. The resolution also positions young people and youth led civil society organization as important actors in global efforts towards countering extremism and promoting lasting peace. This resolution is a major breakthrough of collective efforts to change the predominantly the negative image that people have about young people. Resolution 2250 is a tool that can be used to create peace, to promote peace and to sustain peace and make peace a matter of energy and creativity by including young people. Resolution 2250 can be used to include young people at the policy level of peace building. It can be used to bring a shift in the values at the community level as well that peace is not just about young men, but it's about young women too. We need to recognize that young women face double discrimination due to their gender and age and especially when it comes to participatory peace processes. Resolution 2250 will empower young people and youth led organizations to hold their governments accountable to make sure that governments invest in young people. It will also encourage civil society at the grass root level to engage more young people in peace building processes and it will also encourage young people to be the agents of peace in their local communities. At this point, let me also clarify one thing that using this document for national or grass root level initiative, it doesn't mean that it's a top bottom approach but it's a bottom up approach because this resolution was the dream of young people like me. We need to build peace, peace by peace and one of the pieces is the implementation of this resolution. So we young people, we are looking forward to the implementation of this resolution. We urge that in partnership with young people, action plans are developed for the investment in young people and enabling them to fulfill their peaceful potential. We look forward that young people are meaningfully engaged in decision making processes at all levels and in peace they are also engaged in peace negotiations and young people are also engaged in the implementation of the peace agreements. We hope that measures are taken to support youth led peace initiatives and that the agenda of CVE, of PVE, whatever you call it, peace, security, counter terrorism, these are not used to shrink the spaces of the civil society, especially young people led civil society but it is a way to create more spaces for youth led civil society things. There is a book it's called Art of War. I actually recently started studying about it and another book it's art for intergroup peace building. So the book Art for Peace, it gives a very practical and very tactical approaches about winning a war and this is the most widely read books in the world. It's also studied in different universities and different departments. It has survived for more than 2000 years. So when I was actually reading that book, I was like, you know, what I really want is I want this resolution. I want the resolution 2250 to be a document which is a basis for permanent peace in the world and I was thinking what I want after 2000 year, I want this document, this resolution to be remembered as the document and not the book Art of War. So well in the name of counter terrorism and security initiatives, millions of dollars have been spent in more guns and more bombs, more weapons and every penny spent on a gun, on a bomb, on a missile. It's injustice to every kid who wants to go to school but is not able to afford it. It's injustice to every girl who is denied of her basic human rights and it's also, of course, injustice to every young people who wants to be a peace builder but is stereotyped as a troublemaker as an extremist. So we have to invert this investment and let's start investing in young people and young peace builders. I will just, the last point, I know it's a bit long but just the last point is that bigger discoveries in the world have always been discovered by asking simple questions. For example, when Newton asked this very simple questions that why Apple always fell on the earth and why doesn't it goes up to the sky and it leads to a very bigger theory, the law of gravity. So I encourage all of you to start asking very simple questions. For example, why there are less funding for youth let peace initiatives. Why there is no trust on youth let peace building initiatives by the donors. Why in 2016, young people are so much recruited into militant groups and why there is so much still money going towards and more weapons. So I encourage all of you to start asking these very simple questions and it will lead us to very bigger changes. Thank you. Thank you, Savo. And I will start asking some of these questions. Okay, Victoria, could you tell us about your work in Nigeria? Yeah, so my name is Victoria and I come from Lagos, Nigeria. I'm an educator. I work with children from low-income communities in Nigeria and because these children come from low-income communities, they are also vulnerable children and they are at risk to violent extremism. So our work is in the South, but then the idea of what we do is also to say that violence is not just the issue of Boko Haram that we are faced is not only concentrated in the North, but we also have these issues in the South, also in the Niger Delta. So we are using education to help children transition from violence to peace. So what we do in Nigeria is to teach global citizenship education and peace building. Global citizenship education is giving children the knowledge and skills to help them cope in a world that is interconnected to help them see that they have the choice to choose to work for peace. That no matter the background that they come from, they don't have to use that as an excuse to promote violence, that they can choose to work for peace. So what we do is to teach children on self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, communication skills and most especially social skills. So as I teach in them, we work with children from community schools and we also work with out-of-school children. As I teach in these children, we also organize mentorship classes where we get to have an exchange with them, we want to know what their problems are. Sometimes their problem is from their families. We want to see how we can help them, how we can support them. And after that, we continue to coach them. So some of these children have gone back to their communities to organize little projects to promote peace. They've gone back to slum areas where they come from and they've been able to promote peace in their communities. They've been able to teach their peers. They've also come up with projects to see how they can empower the women from their community because when the mother is empowered, when the mother is empowered, they are able to send their children to school to receive quality education. So this is the focus of our work in one African child. We are trying to use education to see how we can create a world that is sustainable. Victoria, as a young peace builder, how can the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 support crossroads peace building efforts? Thank you. So what the UN Resolution 2250 can do, coming from Nigeria, is to see how we can connect the resolution from the international level to the local level. Because it is like a chain, it must go through the regional level, the national level, before it comes down to the local level. So how can we see that we turn these policies from what we talk about at global platforms like this to the grassroots level? Because after we live here today, I would go back to Nigeria, I would all go back to our respective countries. How do we see that our national governments are supporting these policies? The discussion needs to be on the table at the national and local level because the UN is just a body of member states, right? The UN cannot come to the local level to implement what is in these policies. So we really need our national government to be interested. We need policymakers, we need those who have the influence to be interested to support youth who are working for peace. This is very important because as young people, there's a limit to what we can do. We have ideas, we have innovation. Some of us have been really, really working and we have been calling for recognition and the Resolution 2250 is an opportunity for us to be well represented. It's a platform for our voices to be heard. But how do we ensure that those who have the power at the national level support our work, especially at the regional level? Coming from Africa, the EU, ECOWAS, these are stakeholders who will need their support. How do we ensure that they get interested, that they put this discussion on the table and that they support young people to make this achievable? Thank you, Victoria. Thank you. Now, I would like to invite Cécile Mesucarati to the podium for a presentation on the UN Secretary General Mandated Study on the UN Security Council Resolution 2250. Cécile Mesucarati heads the secretariat for the Security Council Mandated Study on Youth, Peace and Security, a joint secretariat of the United Nations Population Fund and the UN Peacebuilding Support Office. She has worked on women and youth empowerment and participation in peacebuilding and humanitarian settings for the past 10 years. In different functions at the UN, before joining the UN, she also worked for the Women's Rights Program of a Guatemalan human rights NGO. Cécile has also been the co-chair of the Interagency Working Group on Youth and Peacebuilding for the past four years. Cécile studied history at the École Normale Supérieure in France and holds a master's degree in history from the École des études en sciences sociales. She also studied social sciences at UC Berkeley. Now you know everything. Good afternoon, colleagues. I'm just going to say a few words about the progress study on youth peace and security that is mandated by Security Council Resolution 2250. The resolution mandates the Secretary-General of the United Nations to carry out a study on young people's positive contribution to conflict prevention, peace processes, and conflict resolution, and to present that study back to the Security Council in December 2017. If you're familiar with the way the UN works, you might know of other big studies that have been led by the UN similar to this one. So for instance, when Resolution 1325 was adopted in year 2000, it mandated the UN to carry out a study on women, peace, and security. It's called Women War and Peace, and it was a study launched in 2002. You might also know about the Grassa-Machel study on children and armed conflict, which then led the Security Council to adopt Resolution 1612 recognizing the particular challenges and crimes that children face in conflict settings. So this is one of these big studies, and it's really important because the objective is that it provides the evidence of how young people are positively contributing to conflict prevention, to conflict resolution, to peace processes. As all the previous speakers have said, the international community has very much focused on the few young people who create trouble, and we hear a lot about these young people who join ISIS, who join Boko Haram, who are creating havoc. We do hear about them a lot, but we do not hear so much about the young people who are doing the type of work that Saba and Victoria described, who are doing the day-to-day work in their communities to bring back their communities together, to have people from different ethnic groups address each other who are doing this really local level, very important work of social cohesion and reconciliation. The study is the opportunity to provide that evidence and to provide back to member states, to the Security Council, the evidence of what young people do to contribute to peace. Very importantly, it will also provide an agenda for action for the international community. The youth peace and security agenda is very new. It's just now coming to life. So the study is also the opportunity to provide some guidance to member states, to the media, to private sectors, to local leaders, to traditional leaders on what can they do, what should they do differently to support the work of young peace builders. How can they invest in young people as productive members of their communities? Some of the themes that the study will look at, and it's a non-exhaustive list, but just to give you an idea of the different themes that are being discussed. For example, the role of young refugees and young IDPs for peace building, the role of young women for peace and security, the question of indigenous people and how it relates to peace and security issues in Latin American region in particular. The question of protective factors, what protects the majority of young people not join violent groups? Because again, we're looking at the few young people who are joining groups, but why are other young people who are facing similar challenges and similar circumstances not joining these groups? What are protecting them? And how can we as the international community invest in these protective factors and prevent their engagement? Or also the question of young people's involvement, informal and informal peace processes? We've started looking at the question of young people at the peace table. There's very little, if any, data on that. So the study will also be an opportunity to look at that. We expect the Secretary General of the UN to very soon appoint the main author for the study, as well as a group of experts who will work to support the author. And very importantly, that group of experts will include a lot of young people coming themselves from countries that are affected by conflict and having a strong say on peace and security issues. We will be organizing consultations with young people throughout the world to get their voices and their perspectives in the study. And very importantly, in all regions of the world, including in this part of the world. And I'd like to highlight that because I think it's very important to also think that the youth peace and security agenda is not just an agenda of young people coming from conflict affected countries. It's a global agenda. It matters to young people in the US. The US is a country where there are also, I think, a lot of interesting and challenging issues to discuss in terms of peace and security, the way young people are seen, the way young people are involved, definitely in Europe. The question of the migrants who are arriving, and we're all talking about the refugee crisis in Europe. Who are the migrants arriving? Most of them are young people. And what are young European people thinking of the way their own countries are dealing with that influx of young refugees? And just to finish by giving you a concrete example, just recently, the World Humanitarian Summit took place in Istanbul, and we had a discussion with some of the young people. Victoria was there to discuss some of these themes related to the study. And some of the young people who were there talked exactly about that, that as several of them were from Europe, and how they were in disagreement with the way their governments were dealing with the influx of refugee in Europe. So all of these are issues that are directly related to the youth peace and security agenda, and that we hope that the study will really reflect. At the World Humanitarian Summit consultation, some of the young people were also coming up with really interesting ideas about changing entirely the security council and how it works, et cetera. And I think that's really the power of this type of study. When you give the floor to young people, when you let them really say what they want, that's where things get really interesting. So that's a process that many of the partners here in the room are involved in. If you're interested in joining and contributing, please do reach out to us, and we'll all meet back at the security council in December 2017. Thank you. Okay, so now we'll turn to the audience for question and answer portion of the program. We'll take three questions at a time, and please tell us your name and affiliation before asking a short question. Thank you. Okay, so let's start with the right-hand side of the room. My name is Nuru, I'm from Uganda. I'm also a Generation Change Fellow. So my question is on the part of prevention. In Uganda, we have an Islamic conflict between our religious leaders. So we have Muslims fighting against each other in Uganda. So last year, one of the shacks was shot, and this shack has young kids. So I'm wondering how can we reach out to populations that are vulnerable to violent extremism? Who would have a reason? For example, I'm thinking if these kids grow up one day, they would have a reason to do revenge. So how do we reach out to such vulnerable populations or even populations in remote areas that may not necessarily be hard, but would have a reason if someone reaches out to them and tries to put them into violence or extremism, they would go. So how do we reach out to such populations before the bad people reach out to them and influence them into terrorism? Yeah, thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Benga O'Neill, I'm from Nigeria. I'm a Generation Change Fellow and also a Yali Fellow, 2016. I have two short questions. Beyond just having numbers of young people playing active role in peace building, what are the mechanisms, don't know agencies and implementable now, putting in place to ensure quality, not just quantity. I think when Manah was speaking, she made mention of mentorship, which is one. I want to ask from Ahmed or any other of the panelists, what are the mechanisms being put in place to ensure we have quality, not just encouraging more young people to come into peace building and we just have numbers but no quality to what we're doing. And my second question is how can we motivate, or Vicky mentioned, Victoria, sorry, Victoria mentioned that the UN just passed resolutions but it's left for the states to implement it. But I want to ask, what can the UN and implementing partners do to motivate countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Manah region to be able to adopt or domesticate this resolution because I know the UN and donor partner can have some level of influence on countries in sub-Saharan Africa. So how are we planning to use this influence to get our leadership to domesticate this resolution and not just domesticating it but implementing alongside young people? Hi, my name is Rabin Pasha, originally an Iraqi refugee and a founder of the My Entrepreneurial Dream Incubator for Iraq. First of all, it's really inspiring to see you here and your stories and the work you're doing but not just inspiring, it's in fact critical to see that fact because if you look at the flip side of the 70% being under 30, that means the vast majority of all decisions being made by the state and the economy right now are made by 30% of the population and that's really something that is hurting the stabilization of our region, especially as I look into the Middle East and driving the disenfranchisement of young people which is driving the factors of fragility and violent extremism. One of the things that I would love to hear from you is how we can turn the not just positive narratives but give people the economic opportunities and specifically I'd like for you to talk about entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit that not only drives the dreams and the visions and the positive narrative against violent extremism but actually economic opportunity that promotes equality, that promotes doing business together as opposed to sectarian violence and promotes regional stability that we need and would love to hear also how we can from both sides, the international community as well as donor government support that because for example, I look at a place like Iraq, the ruling elites do not actually support young people, they would put that on paper if they're pushed by donor agencies but when it comes to it, they will look at the places of power that they're holding, whether it's in the economy, whether it's oligarchy or corruption, whether it's in the government, through holding to power and democratic and undemocratic means or otherwise, that means young people do not have the voice, how can we promote that better and create both knowledge sharing platforms as well as funding that actually goes to those civil society on the ground? You know, I worked in international development for over a decade and one thing I'd seen and you have as well is international organizations that have big finance and legal departments are really good in getting funding. How do we make sure that those things actually get to people like you and others on the ground who are getting the most of the job done? Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? I think to start with the question about the sheikh who was killed and how children basically would react in the future, I think peace at the end of the day is the way you react in particular circumstances as not only a luxurious option whenever you are in a good day and then a bad day to put it on the shelf and you start to retaliate differently but that's also to say that you have to be surrounded by good institutions and rule of law. You have to trust the government and trust the law enforcement that they will make sure that a response will be there on behalf of you. I mean, there's a reason why state and governments they have monopoly in the use of force because particularly when you develop a nation state and modern society would expect that the state will make sure that they put the right measures. So that's why goal goes 16 I would say in the SDGs for example, that's why rule of law and the strong institutions is fundamental for peace building because at the end we are not individuals, we are communities and these communities for them to be governed and ruled and coexist and though I don't like the word coexist I like genuine acceptance and living together even beyond just pretending that we coexist that requires a good, good enabling environment and institutions and rule of law and that's where you really need to put all these building blocks together to get a peaceful society which we ultimately trying to achieve with the sustainable development goals but with the question about what we are trying to do now and how to ensure a quality participation I think it's important here to reflect and the applications of 22, 15 different fields. First we have to remember we are not talking about security council resolution that is passed to renew the mandate of a political mission to do something or to send an envoy or there are plenty of these resolutions out there. We're talking about when we talk about the ground breaking, turning point, all these terms there's a reason why we are using these words not to just to give a sense of importance to it but because we are talking about a new area an emerging area and development international development being established. Now we have been talking about the importance of youth and youth are not the future you are the leaders of today you have to work with them not for them you have to invest in them not to support they are the peaceful, they're not the travel makers and we have been talking about these things for some time now. Now it's no longer a talk it's an instrument in a security council resolution that was built under chapter seven of the security council if you know what that means so we have traveled to a place we are marking the progress and for us we are talking about a new emerging area and international development and development sector that talks about understanding youth with that holistic spectrum of issues that are no longer about only economic empowerment or education or no longer about foreign fighters and interventions it's about all of that together under one agenda that combines development and peace and security in a coordinated fashion this is a news this is the emerging area and to that emerging area to be fully digested it requires the buying from more more organizations, more governments more donors, more international organization will subscribe to this new thinking about youth and that's why I think what we are having from 2015 and that's the gift of 2015 to all of us that we are finally speaking the same language we speak all of us you go to any organization and they talk about the SDGs you don't have to wait an hour to hear their analysis about what should be done you hear about the Paris Agreement you hear about the Financing for Development Outcome document and in youth you hear about the commitment and the principles that you should apply when you work with youth that were outlined in the resolution so that dictionary and vocabulary for working youth issues didn't exist before this forcefully some of the applications that could refer to immediately for example one of the things that we have an expanded definition for youth and this is what we don't often talk about because we always get this question about how the United Nations define youth and I could always say like you are as young as you feel or sometimes I talk about I feel like it's the age of the invoice or whatever my age is or whoever will come out of it is the age of youth but in fact if you refer to resolutions you have Waterborne Faction for Youth 15 to 24 for statistical purposes and this resolution is expanding that all the way up to 29 which makes sense considering the delay in transitions for that basically marks the youth there in your life so you have that and you have another application that they have the Global Study which is very important one and will engage our whole conversation and will will probably will hopefully will be a tsunami when it's finalized no pressures this year to really put the way forward after the resolution many other applications for example here you need another emerging coalition of donors agencies and the member states who speak this language there is no point of adopting resolutions if you're not honored them so it's not only the government they have to do that but we have to come on board and we have to mark the progress we have made and there again I encourage you all all those who are following youth issues interested in youth issues or you're working youth organizations make sure that we mark this progress and by marking this progress read the resolution and don't allow anyone to send us back in time you are the future all of this stuff and and you are the troublemakers that's over that's over I'm serious I keep telling young people whenever somebody tell you you are the future walk out of the room I tell them I'm coming back in the future or just like say something it doesn't make any sense and that's where we have very little tolerance basically we should leave for a lip service to young people try to deal with them with not the proper sense of urgency I think the last the last element which you're influential from Iraq and the young entrepreneurs refugee I think you're absolutely right I had the owner of Forking in Iraq in the first youth policy in Iraq in 2007 and the survey and I know the sense of frustration disappointment, anger despair among Iraqi youths who are feeling totally not represented, disconnected but the thing is I think for all these reasons then you cannot really solve a problem with one variable even if that's a variable as economic empowerment you really have to tackle different elements and that's what we understand today in youth development youth development is holistic you have to tackle youth friendly services in terms of health or opportunities and health services to young people as much as you have to focus on education, quality education extracurricular activities non-formal education capacity building job opportunities young entrepreneurs access to credit access to land access to finance that's a package of things and others of course you cannot really apply one and think that young people will be okay that's again part of what we are trying to depart now that 90's kind of thinking about young people if you read the word the broken fraction for youth which I'm very happy about of course I have to some members say it's a given so we have to celebrate but it's 20 years ago I mean the word entrepreneurship was not there there was talk about leisure activities back then and there was talk about globalization as a fact all these fashionable words it's like listening to a 90's song sometime and then you go back and feel it was nice back then but then things are changing and you have to capture that so help us in making sure that we are capturing 2016 where we stand in youth issues and I think for all these reasons 2250 is extremely important there's a fantastic piece of art to be honest if you read it and this could be either a great inspiration to agencies to act on it or it could be another layer of nice words and we are so determined not to allow that to happen anymore you like to add yeah I just want to talk on the question about quality and not quantity so the UN resolution 2250 can support more quality education by empowering youths capacity building development for young people to who can youth who live in violent communities youth who can reach to the grassroots level empowering these young people to go back to the community and further empower other young people their peers from this community and this is what Generation Chain does Generation Chain builds the capacity of young people from conflict affected zone providing them with trainings on peace building and conflict management this youth go back to their regions and have been able to empower other young people from their region to ensure peace and stability so if we can have more funding if we can have more support if we can have more partnership for projects like this then we can be able to promote the multiplier effect this youth can go back to their communities and also support peace at the local level Savva? Yes, I would like to go first for the first question from the Uganda that you are talking about the prevention yes I totally agree with it but I think that preventing young people from joining the militant groups is not the only solution because it's only one part of the bigger like it's just one part and we have to deal with the issues we have to make sure that there are policies which make sure that there is inclusion of young people there is good governance there is democracy there is interfaith harmony there is and women are empowered in those communities one of the things that I would like to add is for example you know now there is there is a cycle of revenge that you know something happened it has triggered someone to take a negative action you have to really identify and actually break that cycle of revenge and you have to identify that how you can better engage these young people so that this cycle is broken and a cycle of hope and a cycle of peace is it actually starts in the life of these young people so yeah I was I would like to have this that you know it's really important that we you know we should be clear that it's not just one that it's not the only solution it's only like a smaller part of that coming and I think you have also identified yourself like answered your question yourself as well that you want to reach out to these young people before any militant groups reach out to them so I think yeah you have to build upon on that and I think yeah it will be that thing and for the third question about entrepreneurship I would like to comment on that that there is like economic opportunities are entrepreneurship is not the like again it's not the answer actually to to the violent extremism so this comes from a perspective because I come from Pakistan and the the issue of violent religious extremism it's not that much related it it is somehow but not totally related to economic opportunities it's more related to the ideology because there are people like you know in in the militant groups who are not poor who do not who have like you know who have rich lives but still they have been in these groups they are working for this for the militant groups so it's more about ideology and this ideology has been promoted through media through education system through the political system through a different way so we have to deal it like you know in different ways yeah you may not agree with the with my answer yeah but just second round of questions yeah thank you very much I'm a child like Christian from the Republic of Cameroon I work with young people based on my experience living in violence and radicalization so that's been my motivation I want to share a comment and which is based on 2250 a personal experience of 2250 what it means what it can do to someone the first thing is in March this year I had the opportunity to win an award I think this award came as a result of the process of adopting 2250 from my mom that was one of my first time actually getting into the international scene after doing work for eight years back home working with street children promoting peace no one sees you no one hears about you developing a manual to train these young people where you have no formal education based on that working with the ones who can shoot you tomorrow and that has been the experience but for my mom it started going up and sometime I was named a Commonwealth young person of the year based on my contribution in peace building and actually meeting Her Majesty the Queen and to talk to her about the work we do and 2250 was in my conversation with her the next thing is the kind of work we do back home now when you read 2250 deeply when you look at it from a perspective of an activist on the grassroot there's a lot you learn from it it talks about education about five, six times it talks about skills it talks about jobs these are the approaches which we are putting forth in the peace building process in the CV process which we call the interdisciplinary approach he talked about entrepreneurship development these are one of the tools it is time for all those young people all those working in every development sphere to understand that peace is that path which you cannot remove so they should understand that your contribution is moving towards promoting peace and that's why the local level back home when we have trainings on entrepreneurship development trust me we talk about peace building in it now because it has a role to play we are bringing entrepreneurs we are bringing those working on water, climate change in every aspect when it comes to development to understand that they have a role to play quality education is one of the challenges what we do in our organization we donate books because access to education is a major problem when we talk about skills there is no need going to train a young person on peace building where this young person sees skills as a major challenge that sense of belonging is not there there is that need while working on peace building you bring in this integrated approach we launched a current project which 2250 actually influenced it we had no money we had nothing to do but I told my parents we have worked on 2250 we have a December also happy that we had it and meeting our minister of youth affairs talking to him he had no idea and I was shocked I said what is happening but we need to let him know by doing work I told my parents let's do something which will bring on this approach and we did a project working with children who have a history of violence and bringing it entrepreneurship development bringing education bringing sports for peace bringing all this aspect and when we spoke to them about 2250 they could understand not because from an academic perspective but because we showed it to them from a more practical perspective because usually in a country like Cameroon where I'm from the ones who have been recruited and these ones who do not understand a lot of things about the community the street children these are the ones we are talking about so I want to plead and call on other activists who are in here to understand that using this interdisciplinary approach is very important we have tried and it has worked and it is time for us to look at how we can all incorporate this in the process and next time we will not have questions about what is the role of entrepreneurship in this because we understand it's our duty to use what we have to get to peace thank you very much Thank you so much for having us here today my name is Ava Chaffin and I am a legal intern at the Public International Law and Policy Group and my question relates to how we are aware of the role that media has played in the recruitment of these foreign fighters and I was wondering what the role of media should be now in changing that perspective on youth specifically making it more positive and making it one that reflects the spirit of the resolution itself thank you so much Hi, my name is Khurram and I am an Atlas School Fellow from Pakistan serving with Creative Associates International on countering violent extremism thank you very much for your interesting talk I would like to hear more about how young people can contribute in communities on ground in countering violent extremism this resolution it provides a very good you know it stipulates international law and provides a very good policy document but once it comes to translation in communities in the field how young people can contribute specifically when we talk about involving young people in program management in project management how can they contribute and also I would like to hear more about the P2P approach how young people can target their peers in countering violent extremism thank you Hello, I'm Catherine Ellis I'm the Director of Youth Affairs for the Commonwealth of Nations some people know it as and actually Ashilak has stolen a little bit of what I wanted to say because I wanted to actually ask you how you see you can bring in young people who don't identify primarily as peace builders who are entrepreneurs that are maybe trading across borders and therefore building relationships between countries that maybe in conflict or young people who are running sports programs that bring together young people from different and maybe conflicting backgrounds so that's one question the other part I wanted to ask you about is how you might be intending to use some of the intergovernmental processes over the next year or two for example, next year we have our Commonwealth youth ministers meeting which brings together the youth ministers of the 53 countries it will be in Uganda so I have no doubt that peace building will be on the agenda and off the back of our Heads of Government meeting in November where the Heads actually effectively endorsed 2250 by having in their final resolution a statement about the importance of involving young people in peace and security so I think that the momentum is there next year also the Africa Union their focus will be on young people and the demographic dividend so as a theme there, there's potential so I'm just wondering if you have plans already on how that might happen and if so how we can work with you Victoria? Okay, yeah so I will go with the question of how young people can contribute more at the community level I will share a few examples or approaches from the work that I'm doing for example in the peer to peer education approach the young people once we train them they work through study circles engaging other young people so these study circles are actually closed group discussions in which there are like three to four maximum three to four young people and these conversations happen on like weekly basis or after like every two weeks and it's more sharing about their own perspective sharing about you know about the opinions and thoughts and the train members they give the other young people you know the knowledge the conflict resolution skills and different the knowledge they have gained during the training and so that's you know that is one of the approach that more closed discussions and the other approach is is actually what we are doing is reclaiming the spaces of the militant groups for example in when I was working in Sawatweli so there is a hotel which was occupied by the Taliban and they used to slaughter young people in that place so what we did is that we organized like a one month peace programs in that spaces so we were like you know because we what we are saying that you know this the spaces belongs to us belongs to the peace builders and not to the militant groups so we have to use them for peace building programs so this is this is a few things I can share a story if we have time I can share a story of a young person his name is Jahangir and he's actually from the tribal areas of Pakistan so he when actually he heard about our girls in our program that we are the people who are like promoting some Western ideology so when he heard he was like he really wanted to join our program to teach us a lesson that you know because he was he heard you know these things that this is all about Western ideology against Islam and all these things so when he joined our program so he was transformed and he decided that because he met with other young people in the program he he had the opportunity to learn to different alternative narratives and not only to like one source of information so it was so then he decided that he will he will work he will go back to his village to the tribal areas he will work with young people with the communities there and he started actually working with the with the religious with the imams of this of his community and he convinced them that they will teach about peace and non violence in their Friday summons instead of inciting violence so he mobilized the the imams in his community he also he also came to know during this process that like peace is not only about preventing young people but it's also about ensuring gender equality so he became the first person of his village who took his mother and sisters to vote in the elections in the look in the elections in Pakistan so these this we are using like different strategies we have also built a capacity of young people in using digital media so they can make different anonymous stories and they can start these discussions into their into their communities yeah and then coming back to the question of role of media yes I think it's really important that media media is plays a huge role in shaping the minds of any community for example in Pakistan when the incident of bin Laden happened it was like it was so hard for the media to like you know to admit it you know that this incident happened similarly if there is like any other terrorist groups so some of the like you know it's when it comes to media they're like some of the media they may not be very open in in these debates and some become apologetic to the to the militants and to the Taliban so yes it's really important that we engage media in a way that it teaches more about about celebrating the diversity about different religions and it's like it's it's takes a strong position so well yeah maybe I can something I think you covered well the not about the media and we have to to make these stories are more appealing for for journalists to cover I mean the stories of all the young volunteers or we're working with the croissant and the croissant in Syria they're risking their lives and delivering services and supporting their communities every day and you would really read any story at featuring and covering bravery of young people who are in very difficult circumstances are working and supporting their communities and that leads me to what Katra was talking about who is a peace builder and whether they have to be called peace builders I think we should open the club and allow others as well to join whether young entrepreneurs, other activists, youth worker or the variety of topics they cover because at the end of the day the peace questions are quite fundamental as the foundation for anything that you could offer I mean you can't operate and the the absence of peace and I think there we have to to make it more open and accessible you don't come only as with the title of a peace builder I mean it's a great title of course a great a great way of being featured but I think there are many young people who are peace builders in their own ways and creating economic opportunities and difficult situations and and supporting their communities and volunteering and doing wonderful stuff without them even knowing that they could be called peace builders so I think that's that's a massive community of young people out there besides those who are actively working we keep repeating the very simple fact that the vast majority of young people are peace loving individuals who would like to to live to access decent job opportunities the good education have friends etc so I think that that's important also on the note about intergovernmentally what what good opportunities would be there thanks for sharing some of the very important gatherings and opportunities where definitely I think this has to be a a standing item in all these different conversation and discussions and I think also together with with Sarge and Cecilia as the co-chair also the third they are here with us the United Network of Young Peace Builders sometimes called the United Nations of Peace Builders not that I mean it but they're just like you and whenever you see it it means one thing for me now but I think let's have this conversation and strategize together but definitely recognize the commonwealth and your important work there and the the council of ministers who are from the commonwealth's region and other important structures your points are brilliant I think and just offers exactly how things should be carried at the national level it will not arrive to you I mean I wish this 2250 is something we send with FedEx and arrives to all ministries and they sign for receiving it and overnight delivery to some of the ministry it doesn't work that way I mean it has to be picked by individuals by organizations and by young people and youth groups who will pick it and decide this is my thing I have to push my my national or local government to do do things about it and I'm glad that it worked in your case because it proves a good instrument that allow you to argue with with officials and convince them to get the support you need and I would imagine that we'll only hear more more of these stories so there are no overnight shipment from New York what happens in New York should not stay in New York should really go everywhere that's that's also to say maybe in in a relevant note it's very important for us to look to other resolutions of the Security Council and at some point would be good also it's not only one time the Security Council they meet and discuss this topic but and whatever discussion will be there and whatever conversations political missions mandated to carry peace negotiations I think it's important to include the youth element and I think youth element that's some of the homework that we have to do back in New York but but more are invited to join us in that thank you Ahmad okay last last round of questions well good afternoon thank you so much for being with us today my name is Lindsay Cox and I'm a president's intern for youth engagement and empowerment at partners of the Americas my question for you this afternoon is have you run into any issues or backlash due to the empowerment of girls as a part of youth or are the youth movement and the women's empowerment movements considered or treated to be separate thank you thank you very much my question is this with the African Union's peace oh sorry my name is Ujru and from Nigeria the African Union's peace and security architecture only focuses on RECs and the role of countries and no reference to the role of young people and I think that's that's that's a big mishap for Africa fairly coming from communities where young people there's hierarchy and the older you are the wiser you are the younger you are the more stupid so although people are seen as the wisest younger wants to have a role to play so that becomes very challenging for young Africans to play active roles in peace processes and when young Africans are brought to the table they're usually seen as figure heads and they just sit down and other people make the recommendations and we know that young people are active in conflict but they're usually not brought to the table when it's time for you know resolutions so and also I also want to talk about youth bulge a lot of reference has been made to youth bulge and the impact of youth bulge on peace and I understand that when young people are not engaged when young people are not when their capacities are not built to be able to develop their communities they become easy targets for radicalization so I'm asking from the African perspective from the African context how do we begin to address these challenges how do we begin to get government to actively engage young people thank you very much Kiln, next question Hi my name is Alex from Youth Policy Labs think tank on youth and public policy unsurprisingly we would advocate that youth policies are quite an effective way of implementing resolution 2250 at a national level but our research shows as is quite obvious that the countries that would obviously most benefit from this are often fragile in conflict or in post-conflict states where actually they just lack the kind of the governance systems and infrastructure at a national level to be able to implement those kind of policies effectively best they're challenged at worst they just remain a PDF so I guess my question is twofold one how can we strengthen national governments to be able to design and deliver better policies at that national level but also picking up from what Ahmed just said as well how can we better support youth organizations and informal youth movements particularly that are kind of doing that youth work and youth policy in absence of that government infrastructure yeah I'll leave it there thanks good afternoon my name is Cara Turnger and I'm here with the Wilson instant Wilson Center I first of all would like to echo the question of how we ensure that youth participation is not merely symbolic but actually practical but also my question is how can storytelling be used as a way to elevate the narratives of youth leaders in peace building thank you last question thank you more than a question it's more a comment I'm Noelia from UNDP leading the work on youth a member of the working group but also co-leading with world vision the task force specifically on 2250 implementation from the programmatic point of view and with Sajji the fundraising task force so anyone that want to talk to us after is welcome to do so I just wanted to point that after the adoption of the 2250 resolution of course the working group doesn't see its mission accomplished I mean we immediately worked on a practice note on young people's participation in peace building if you're looking for inspiring practices that already went through a significant amount of evaluation in the field you may want to look at that on www youthforpeace.info you will see that it's very much in line with the content of the resolution but also of the guiding principles on young people's participation in peace building I'm very happy Alex that you mentioned governance because I feel that this is really the main bottleneck and in 2015 I mean we had two good news we had the SDG the 2030 agenda adoption and the security council on 2250 from where we stand on youth in peace building very important to seize the opportunity also of the goal 16 in particular the goal 16 implementation which is about participation in decision making at all levels accountability rule of law and peace and justice really important to look into the enabling environments I mean we all know that in many countries although young peace builders are doing some even the invisible work as you're very well articulating the legislative framework is extremely discriminatory vis-à-vis young people young people cannot be eligible but can yet vote and there are many many types of barriers that we're still facing so just a plea to look into standalone initiatives that would really beef up the capacities of young people but really to keep in mind that if we don't fight against corruption if we do not promote the rule of law if we do not have young people embedded in mediation, transition transitional justice this is not going to be sustainable so we have to just keep that closely in mind and thank you very much for all the great discussion thank you I think important points yesterday we were in a very important discussion about youths and young women and girls in particular in Africa and a high-level event at the UN and a very important conversation around some of the structural challenges and pediments that are facing young people in Africa today as we'll keep saying it's not only the youngest continent but in fact it will continue and it will even be younger in the next 15 years and the SDGs so you have a massive opportunity there and all the figures are numbered I mean there are very promising signs I mean some moving elements if you look through some of the research about entrepreneurship like in the top 10 countries maybe five or six of them are coming from Africa now maybe they are resorted to entrepreneurship because it's the only solution but it's an encouraging sign there are many good developments in Africa but it's way below where it should be I think the question of representation for young people in Africa is still there this morning a gentleman told me and I have to still verify this piece of info about in Senegal the average age of the country is 18 or 19 years old while the average age of politician is close to 70 years old and verify this again and don't quote me on that or retweet it or but what I know like the median age in Africa is around 21 and the median age of politicians around 63 so that's their serious gap in terms of representation so that's a longer conversation that we still have to figure out I guess if we to get Africa fully import for the SDGs the question about the youth policies and I know that you will not believe I am saying that if like some of you will know my background I've been working youth policies for a couple of good years but I just came from the Central African Republic and there my advice to them please don't do a youth policy I mean I couldn't even recognize myself telling them don't do a youth policy now because clearly there's no elements that could carry this youth policy it's just like as we keep saying it would be like a waste of energy and efforts and resources what we try to do and that's already being done now we're combining all the UN different initiatives in youth the UN country team together with the Ministry of Youth it's a very small one it's a new one very ambitious but they have no tools and means to do things so they are merging both in a national program in youth it's very actionable focusing mainly on helping the country to rebound from violence and getting people there once you put it in a bit of a track then I think and you build the institution you build some muscles to carry that I think then you can reach a point I mean a youth policy is a delicate exercise even a very well established democracy and very well functioning institutions because you talk about mainstreaming youth you talk about youth budgeting you talk about basically a proper system for that mainstreaming to have and getting all the line ministries and others and that's not easy at all I think in the context of peace and security a country are following that child violence youth policy would be a luxury that you basically don't have so you have to go for a more immediate actions and programs that target the very immediate needs and that's what is my fresh take in the Central African Republic it's not lack of well and I was even saying there to my colleagues at the UN whatever we have there the UN has almost close to 14,000 individuals in the country the government doesn't really I mean have control over the full territory but the UN peacekeepers go to places where the government don't and there was telling them please don't take a credit for anything the credit has to go for that ministry because they have to report something to their people if you want the country to rebound again and to be in a track basically we have to gift it for them build the confidence of the state institution and hopefully I go ahead and graduate they will be able to be in a place where they could take it from there but that's my take in the youth policy I fully agree GO-16 strong institutions a proper account of a mechanism for youth and institutions are fundamental there and then at a more advanced stage you come to the chicken and egg I mean how to do that without having investment youth how to do investment youth without having proper institutions but I think GO-16 is quite fundamental for the realization of all these different goals did I miss anything I think I'll leave it here but it's very important discussion and I'm very grateful that we're having this discussion here in DC not only a beautiful weather a beautiful building and it's always good to be in DC but it's always good to brief you all colleagues different think tanks international organizations here to make sure that we are up to the same speed and to the same knowledge and we're on the same page between New York and DC and hopefully other major cities as well and other major international actors who could join us in this march Victoria? Yes on storytelling I think storytelling as a way of inspiring people who listen to your story it has a way of building empathy and resilience especially for young people who want to work for peace people coming from conflict affected zone telling their story to other young people who are affected by the same situation they will feel very motivated recently as part of Generation Change we were in India with the Dalai Lama talking about how we can promote peace and put an end to violent extremism and sharing our situation from Nigeria with other participants from Nigeria and also listening to youth participants from South Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq we were able to understand that we are not alone and we felt really strengthened to continue the peace building work that we are doing but again from Generation Change I learned that it is not about telling your story but also how you tell that story it's very important that the story must be compelling it must have a motive do people have something to get from it at the end of the day do they have something to take back home do they have something to pick from that story so these are the things that we must realize while telling our story Yeah so coming to the question of the women's rights movement and the youth movement that is there are they separate or not they are of course not separate because women rights are human rights and young people rights are also human rights but when actually because young women are the ones who are the most marginalized community and when they're like if we globally see they are not enough women in the leadership positions overall throughout the world and that's why whenever like there I think that there are the women who are in a position who has the voices we have to raise our voices even louder for those especially in the developing countries who do not have the opportunities to speak who do not have the accessibility to different resources so yes if it's not different but we have to be always make sure because whenever we say that okay it's a young people's movement automatically most of the people think of like young men and there are certain platforms for example if we like talk about young people so it is mostly occupied by young men so that's why we have to always like reinforce that yes both young men and young women it's really important to mention that then to the point of the backlash of in the women's rights movement they're like you know as I'm engaged in the women's rights movement for quite a lot of years now so this journey is a fascinating journey but yes there are like situations there are like I'm doing all this work at the cost of my life at the cost of being attacked multiple times we have to relocate our offices multiple times I became a refugee and an IDP even in my own country just because of the because of my values and because of the work that I'm doing so yes there actually the rise of religious extremism is a problem but still as we know that yes we women have the power to bring a change and that's why we do hope that we are able to make a change and then coming to the points of like how young people can be supported I think more investment in youth initiatives and trust in young people and their powers and their abilities because they can do and they can engage at different levels yeah thank you so thank you and now I would like to invite Manal Omar to the audience to the podium to make closing remarks yes and lucky that there really isn't much more to say everyone covered it well I do want to thank you and the other youth leaders that are in the room thank you very much I do have one request from all of those who are working on youth programs now that we have a platform a springboard which is what this UN resolution is and all we all know in DC the big question and you know within the international organizations is how do we monitor how do we evaluate impact and since each individual is working on youth in some way what I would ask and invite you to consider is please do think about sharing your information with the co-chairs for the working group Saji you've heard him speak please coordinate with him that way they can take all of these individual efforts and put it together so we can really begin to monitor and evaluate the impact of the resolution and the activities that are going towards youth so it's no longer a question I mean at a time where data is so important this type of small efforts in coordination will be incredibly helpful I also do want to say that that from generation change we had a really sad loss of a colleague and so this event was in memory of her and I think you guys saw her photos in the slideshow so I wanted to acknowledge Evelyn and to say that as you leave do say a silent prayer for her because she was someone that inspired us and it's a reminder of the great risk that our youth take every day thank you for joining us and thank you again to our wonderful panelists thank you