On this International Day of Peace, we kick off a blog series introducing the work of Investing and Partnering for Youth and Peace (IPYP) and its members. In this first blog, we highlight initial research findings and key principles to guide our collective efforts to engage the private sector as meaningful partners with young people. Future blogs in this series will explore emerging opportunities in this field and aim to spark discussion with you that enhances this work.
In a world of overlapping crises from rising conflicts, climate breakdown, pandemics, and food insecurity, young people emerge as remarkable changemakers, tirelessly striving to create peaceful and resilient communities. From mediating access to life-sustaining resources in Yemen to reaching underserved communities in Ukraine, they are indispensable allies in our global quest for peace and resilience.
Despite their pivotal roles, the resources and coordinated efforts to support young peacebuilders have remained conspicuously limited, especially in times of escalating crises. Alarming statistics reveal a decline in Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation for peacebuilding, plummeting from 19.6% in 2009 to a mere 12% in 2020. Private finance mobilised for SDG 16 are disappointingly minimal.
Shockingly, a quarter of our global youth are affected by armed conflict. However, although we lack disaggregated data for investments into youth, it is clear from consultations and donor dialogues that this gap is even more pronounced for young people and particularly so for marginalised young people including young women, young people with disabilities and indigenous youth.
While calls for private sector partnerships to bridge the financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals have grown louder, a systemic approach remains elusive. Dialogue between private sector entities and peacebuilding actors falters due to disparate terminologies, incentive structures, and operational mandates.
Furthermore, we must recognise the private sector has often contributed to conflict, and efforts to engage in socially responsible practices have frequently been labelled as ‘green washing’ or ‘peace washing’. Simultaneously, youth are demanding more from the private sector, with Gen Z wielding over $3 trillion in purchasing power. The time has come to forge impactful coalitions for change.
In response, the Global Coalition on Youth, Peace, and Security Financing Taskforce formed a multi-stakeholder working group, “Investing and Partnering for Youth and Peace”. Its mission: to (i) identify, research, and recommend potential options for additional resource mobilization and partnerships with the private sector to advance the role of young people in peacebuilding; and (ii) mobilize resources and partnerships and help strengthen knowledge management and advocacy through coordination.
In December 2022, a steering committee was formed with representatives from civil society, governments, multilateral entities, and the private sector. Under its guidance, research endeavours began to dissect the role of private sector actors in youth-led peacebuilding. The report has four building blocks.
Unlocking potential: Four distinct yet interconnected workstreams
Emerging from the research are four distinct yet interconnected workstreams strategically housed in an ‘innovation portfolio’ that respond to young peacebuilders’ needs and opportunities for partnerships. In the medium term, the innovation portfolio aims to catalyse systemic changes, influencing policies and practices regarding meaningful engagement with young peacebuilders.
Mobilizing Philanthropy: This workstream explores avenues to secure new and high-quality grants from private philanthropy to bolster youth-led peacebuilding.
- Peace Impact Investment: Building upon the emerging field of peace impact investment, this workstream investigates investments that are both youth-focused and peace-positive.
- Integration into Investment Frameworks: Advocating for the integration of youth and peace-positive criteria into investment frameworks, including those employed by development banks.
- Non-Financial Partnerships: This workstream explores non-financial partnerships for peace, such as capacity support, leveraging political influence, and addressing core business practices.
In addition to these workstreams, two cross-cutting themes were identified:
- Strengthening the business case: strengthening and developing a compelling business case for youth and peace is crucial.
- Participatory design: Ensuring active and equal involvement of young people throughout the finance structuring process.
We chose this breakdown based on our analysis of the needs of young people and the current and most likely opportunities available to engage the private sector. We wanted to balance philanthropic giving and partnerships with work which addressed the larger sources of capital in return seeking investments, as well as with work which addressed the core practices of private actors which often contribute to conflict.
Grounding this work in principles and practice
At this early stage of development, we recognise the need to experiment, learn and adapt as we seek to influence wider transformative change. As such we have grounded the work ahead with the following considerations:
- Organisational readiness: Addressing challenges tied to organisational readiness is paramount. This encompasses peace impact metrics, different working practices and a considerable reluctance from the private sector to engage in peacebuilding work as it is seen as risky and ‘politicised’. We will work with actors to shine light on, and break through these challenges.
- Intersectional lens of analysis: As this work develops the authors caution against homogenising youth as a population and to recognise the varying and added barriers for marginalised young people including young women, young people with disabilities as well as rural and indigenous youth.
- Integration, not competition: The group warns against pitting the Youth, Peace and Security agenda against other agendas, we emphasise the integration of young people into broader peacebuilding, prevention, and development initiatives, while ensuring strong youth co-leadership.
- Focus on conflict affected settings. Whilst peacebuilding is universally relevant, special attention is given to young people in conflict-affected settings as they are often the most marginalised and face added barriers.
- Long-term vision. The opportunities identified in the portfolio are by no means a panacea to the challenges outlined, nor a replacement for ODA and government support. In the short-term, partnerships with the private sector are unlikely to reach the most disadvantaged communities and we acknowledge the need for sustained commitment to achieve long-term impact.
- Design principles: Initiatives in the innovation portfolio should be guided by the following principles:
- Recognising public sector capabilities. We recognise that unlocking partnerships and investment for youth and peace not only requires willing coalition building with the private sector but strengthened capabilities within public bodies to direct resources towards inclusive development.
- Learning from ‘shift the power’ movement. ‘Shift the power’, localisation and decolonisation of aid movements call for the transformation of how the aid system operates including through shifting of decision-making power to local actors. There are several frameworks and other resources to guide this work which can and should inform the ongoing work of IPYP.
Our call to action is for actors to channel resources towards meaningful youth engagement and participation and resourcing of youth-led peacebuilding. The forthcoming report, to be released alongside the Africa Resilience Forumin October sets out more detailed recommendations for stakeholders. Only through a concerted effort can we realise the transformative change envisaged in SDG 16, to promote peaceful and inclusive societies.
Written by the co-authors of the IPYP inception report: Ben Claeson, Mohamed Ghanem and Catherine Howell.
For more information, please contact Ben Claeson at: [email protected]
You must be logged in in order to leave a comment