Sierra Launches UN Security Council Resolution
2250 on youth, peace and security
On 28 February 2017, the Youth Partnership for
Peace and Development (YPPD) in Sierra Leone in close partnership with the
Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding organized a launch
event of the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security,
to honor this landmark resolution in an official ceremony. The Resolution was
officially launched by Anthony A. Koroma, Commissioner, National Youth
Commission. The event brought together well over one hundred and twenty
representatives from the government, civil society organizations, youth
activists, academics, some CSPPS members such as Cordaid, Search for Common
Ground, United Network of Young Peacebuilders, as well as UN agencies, such as
UNDP to discuss challenges and opportunities for greater youth engagement in
the country's future. CSPPS was represented in this meeting by Peter van
Sluijs, Coordinator of the CSPPS Secretariat and Senior Strategist at Cordaid.
Being on the crossroads since the country's civil
war, Sierra Leone has had several processes unfolding as part of repositioning
her place on the global and governance stages. While most of these processes
are looked at as key opportunities for holistic growth and engagement, a lot
seems disconnected as to answering questions like how central young people are
in seeking joint and collective solutions to dealing with major drivers of
conflicts, violence and fragility in general. Launching the UNSCR 2250 is a
significant bold step in not only raising the profile and meaningful
involvement of youth in peace and security, but further generating wider policy
and stakeholder interest while building on commitments to solidify structures
for holistic engagement with young people for a peaceful Sierra Leone.
Going beyond the launch, it is obvious that the
debate no longer centers on how critical young people are when it comes to
peacebuilding, conflict prevention and violent extremism; but rather how we are
collectively answering the very question of what differently we can do for them
(youth) to take the center stage in building and consolidating Sierra Leone's
hard-earned peace. While acknowledging government of Sierra Leone's efforts in
putting the necessary regulatory and institutional frameworks, it is our hope
that the national launch of the Resolution will be an opportunity to doing
more, particularly in harnessing the very demographic dividend that youth
presents.
The launch further serve as a significant step in
setting up an Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Youth Peace and Security
in Sierra Leone and by extension, the very significant beginning to cushioning
rising election tensions emanating in the lead up to the 2018 national polls.
The wider CSPPS Country team in Sierra Leone has actively supported the event
and will ensure follow-up in context of their work on New Deal and PSGs, but
also as part of the overall national effort in placing youth at the center of peacebuilding and statebuilding.
Chaired by Prof. Memunatu Pratt, Head of
Department, Peace and Conflict Studies at the Fourah Bay College, University of
Sierra Leone, the Launch event was concluded with a set of recommendations to
governments aimed at attaining the fullest implementation of the UNSC
Resolution 2250 and the SDG16 from a Sierra Leonean youth perspective. Some of
these key recommendations included:
·
That there is need for forming an Inter-Agency
Platform as an immediate post-launch structure that will lead the coordination
of UNSCR 2250 at the national level.
·
The urgent need for the Development of a
National Program of Action that will serve as road map for the implementation of
the Resolution.
·
Active and continuous engagement of state and
non-state actors to deliberately mainstream youth into their programming and
implementations.
·
Engaging young people to take the lead in
preventing conflict and promoting peace in their respective communities.
·
Constant and robust media engagement to raise
awareness about the resolution.
Given Sierra Leone's youthful population, it is
obvious that we cannot afford to miss the opportunity of leaving youth behind
in patters of peacebuilding and their empowerment while building their
capacities for development.
"There can be nothing for us without us. On
behalf of the young people of Sierra Leone and partners, we welcome the
promises, but we urge government to fulfill them and do more", Musa
Ansumana Soko, lead convener and Executive Coordinator of Youth Partnership for
Peace and Development concludes.
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