Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security (GCYPS)

The Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security (GCYPS) is the leading platform for shaping global policy and practice on youth, peace, and security. The GCYPS facilitates exchange, coordination, and collaboration between more than 140 organizations from civil society, including youth-led and youth-focused organizations, UN entities, donors, academia and inter-governmental bodies. The GCYPS is co-chaired by the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY Peacebuilders), Search for Common Ground (Search) and the United Nations Population Fund – UNFPA). 

Background / Objectives / Contact Information / Working Groups & Task Forces

The GCYPS has focused its efforts on;

1. Shaping and strengthening social and political norms about young people, away from seeing them as troublemakers toward seeing them as partners and co-leaders in peace and security efforts. The GCYPS co-led the advocacy efforts that resulted in the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolutions 2250, 2419 and 2535 that form the normative frameworks for the agenda. Click here to learn more about this work. 
2. Strengthening institutional commitments to understand and act on those norms. This involves working across the UN agencies, intergovernmental bodies and other key institutions to develop institutional policies and programs that help operationalize these norms.
3. Strengthening national level implementation of the agenda and improving resource mobilization and distribution to support youth co-leadership. This has involved supporting national strategies and action plans on YPS to shaping new funding opportunities and instruments to strengthen youth co-leadership. 

The coalition operates through specialised working groups and task forces, dedicated to addressing various aspects of the YPS Agenda.

Background

Originally called the Working Group on Youth and Peacebuilding, the GCYPS was established in 2012 as part of the broader United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD). It was renamed after the launch of The Missing Peace: Independent Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security, mandated by Security Council Resolution 2250 (2015), following the recommendation to establish YPS coalitions to ensure a collective impact on YPS at local, national, regional and global levels.

Objectives

The objective of the GCYPS is to coordinate the advancement of the YPS agenda and strengthen youth participation in peacebuilding policy and practice. 

The GCYPS is a platform for member organizations to:

• Support policy and programmatic efforts in the field of youth, peace and security;
• Strengthen partnerships between youth, multilateral, governmental and civil society actors;
• Generate collective knowledge on youth, peace and security;
• Monitor progress and measure the impact of the implementation of the agenda;
• Advocate for young people’s meaningful and inclusive participation in policy-making at the global, regional and national levels.

For more information contact:

• Saji Prelis, Co-Chair – SFCG: [email protected]
• Joao Felipe Scarpelini, Co-Chair – UNFPA: [email protected]
• Sofia Biscuola, Co-Chair – UNOY: sofia.biscuola@unoy.org

Key Working Groups and Taskforces

The work of the GCYPS is co-led through various working groups and taskforces, whose names and purposes are detailed below. They are co-chaired by youth, civil society and UN agencies.

**Fill in this form to contact a working group or task force.**

• Civil Society WG on YPS
• YPS Global Protection WG
  • • Strengthens protection and safeguarding mechanisms for young peacebuilders and human rights defenders
    • Chairs: Daria Kosheleva (UN), Ufra Mir, Dickson Okongo’o, Ekakoro Frederick Etoori, Saji Prelis (SFCG)
• Investing and Partnering with Youth for Peace (IPYP)
  • • Plays a convening role in bridging youth-led peacebuilding efforts and private sector actors, creating opportunities for shared learning, co-creation, and sustainable partnerships.
    • Chairs: Sarah Smith (Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation), Saji Prelis (SFCG), Khaled Emam (Justice Call), Michiko Fukase (UNICEF), Carole Monika Rozumek (UN)
• Knowledge Management Working Group (KM WG)
  • • Facilitates knowledge sharing through meetings, and Knowledge Cafés, especially considering youth-led research initiatives. It also shares information about YPS knowledge products and materials.
    • Chairs: Paula Isturiz (UNESCO Caribbean Office), Junbert Pabon (World Scouting), Oscar Luchivya (Kenyan Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security), Celina Del Felice (Agency for Peacebuilding), Gondo Tadiwanashe (SAYOF-SADC)
• Regionalization of YPS
  • • Aims to identify regional YPS mechanisms/structures (formal or informal); enable an exchange of their experience and promote inclusive participation of diverse regions in GCYPS; and enhance inter-regional and global-regional integration, coordination, information sharing and best practices.
    • Chairs: Fatuma Muhumed (UNFPA), Mridul Upadhyay
• Climate YPS Working Group
  • • Chairs: Briona Collins (UNOY), Alessia Ulfe Bandini (Kofi Annan Foundation

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