Under the theme of “Young Women in Arts for Peace,” the Forum is attended by 27 young women from around the world and speakers with different backgrounds in mediation, academia, and art. It looks at the role of creative tools in mediation and conflict transformation. The arts have demonstrated to be crucial tools in bringing the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) closer to the community level, thereby helping to popularize it while contributing to peace consolidation.
Attending the Forum as a guest speaker, BKMC COO Katrin Harvey
presented on the status of and need for increased youth participation in peace processes and shared recommendations in relevance to the “We Are Here” paper.
Here are some recommendations for how to effectively foster young women’s mediation:
1️⃣ Around the room: dialogue via committees, youth-specific consultations, funding and technical support, capacity building for/with youth, inclusive programs, youth as partners for implementation, etc.
2️⃣ Outside the room: establishing a protected, enabling environment, making use of social media and digital diplomacy, etc.
The Forum aims at bridging the gap between formal and informal processes for conflict prevention and mediation in the efforts to enhance young women’s inclusion in mediation, and other peace processes. The Forum is further designed to promote young women’s enhanced inclusion and to raise awareness about the importance of the arts in the field of peace and security more specifically to mediation. The Forum will further provide a platform for peer to peer experience sharing between young women active in peacebuilding in different contexts, more particularly in mediation, as well as to provide a platform to discuss their experiences and the use of art to promote Peace.
Learn more: https://iphrdafrica.org/
© IPHRD-Africa
