Children and Youth in Peacebuilding: Evidence based approach to breaking cycles of violence.

On February 3, 2015 DME for Peace and the Washington Network on Children and Armed Conflict (WNCAC) hosted a panel discussion on Children and Youth in Peacebuilding: Evidence based approach to breaking cycles of violence.

The Global Partnership for Children and Youth in Peacebuilding (GP) is a community of practice uniting international, national and local organizations, scholars and champions who believe young people play a key role in peacebuilding. Particularly, given that most contemporary conflicts occur in places with very young populations, children and youth have a great opportunity to help break cycles of violence. Together the GP is conducting a multi country, multi-partner, and multi-donor (3M) evaluation of the quality and impact of child and youth participation in peacebuilding. The 3M evaluation nurtures long term global, country and local partnerships. It is also participatory and inclusive allowing children and youth to document and analyze their peacebuilding experiences and impact and present and implement action plans. The 3M evaluation will strengthen the GP’s ability to support evidence based approaches to peacebuilding. We are planning continued expansion of partnership projects.

More information about the Global partnership and the 3M process can be found at: www.GPCYP.com, and on the recent DME for Peace blog post: Notes from the Field, Nepal. 

About the Speakers:

Dilshan Annaraj

Dilshan Annaraj is the Associate Director for Peacebuilding Programming at World Vision International. Dilshan is the global lead for a project model – Empowering Children as Peacebuilders (ECaP) and a conflict/context analysis tool – Integrating Peacebuilding and Conflict Sensitivity (IPACS). Dilshan’s primary role is to ensure the integration of Peacebuilding and Conflict Sensitivity in WV’s Programming. Dilshan is based in Sri Lanka.

Annette Giertsen

Annette Giertsen, is the Senior adviser for Save the Children Norway. Annette started her career with Save the Children as country director in Guatemala and Nicaragua and then has been working at the HO as a leader and adviser. One of the key areas that she has been working was children’s rights and participation, including their participation in peace building (see www.reddbarna.no/chp). She has also been working in different roles in many countries and regions, holding regional and global positions. Annette is the founding co-chair of the Global Partnership for Children & Youth in Peacebuilding.

Dr. Michael McGill

Dr. Michael McGill holds a BA in Communications, a MA in counseling/ psychology and a PhD in intercultural studies. His research focuses on child and youth participation in peace processes. He has worked as a child psychologist, invested time in 60 countries and devoted over 15 years to developing international partnerships and collective impact initiatives. He currently serves as the founding Director of the Young Peacebuilders (www.YoungPeacebuilders.com) and is one of the lead evaluators for the 3M process.

Claire O’Kane

Claire O’Kane is an international child rights consultant who is passionate about children and Claire O’Kane is an international child rights consultant who is passionate about children and young people’s participation. She is qualified social worker with more than 20 years of  international  experience  in  child rights,  participation, citizenship, protection, care and peacebuilding work in  development  and emergency  contexts especially in the Asia and Africa regions. Claire is one of the lead evaluators for the 3M process. 

Lakshitha Saji Prelis

Lakshitha Saji Prelis is the Director for Children & Youth Programmes at Search for Common Ground and the founding co-chair of the UN-Civil Society-Donor Inter-Agency Working Group on Youth Participation in Peacebuilding where he co-led the process to develop the Guiding Principles on Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding. Saji also supports youth engagement work for Search for Common Ground in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Middle East and North Africa. He is also currently the co-chair of the Global partnership for Children & Youth in Peacebuilding.