An Interactive Dialogue with the President of the General Assembly on Youth, Peace and Security: The First of its Kind

Written by Mridul Upadhyay, UNOY Regional Coordinator for Asia & Co-Founder of UNOY member, Youth for Peace International 

With 700-800 participants, the ECOSOC Youth Forum—held on the 8th and 9th April, 2019—was the largest youth gathering at the United Nations. The programme was self-funded, so although I was involved in the preparation of this year’s forum, it was almost impossible for me to attend due to personal financial constraints. Therefore, it came as a nice surprise when my supervisor at UNOY Peacebuilders asked me to attend it.

I was asked to moderate the Interactive Dialogue with the President of the General Assembly (PGA) on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS). I realised the value of this first-of-its-kind dialogue with Madam President, H.E. Mrs Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, who has committed to YPS as one of the 7 thematic priorities of her year-long tenure.

After the call from Madam President of the ECOSOC—H. E. Inga Rhonda King—to ask questions, make comments, and give recommendations, the PGA—Mrs Maria Fernanda—set the stage for dialogue:

‘I am fully committed to the youth, peace and security agenda. Youth are central to our efforts to sustain peace… I am also committed to youth inclusion and dialogue… In order to make the YPS agenda truly effective, all 193 Member States must actively adopt it and [this] must be integrated into all the pillars of our work… [In my various positions] I have witnessed the ability of young people to make progress in peace processes and in conflict situations… Their stories and achievements reinforce the strong argument in favour of the inclusion of young people (for a safer, fairer, and more sustainable world)… We cannot hope to make progress in conflict situations if we have not put in place the structures, the funding, the mechanisms and mindsets for meaningful youth inclusion during peacetime.’

The prospects and challenges in the field of YPS are very diverse, so we divided the discussion into Political, Educational, Civic, and Economic spheres. We had a strong panel of four young peacebuilders from Georgia, Peru, South Africa, and Palestine.

We also explored young people’s meaningful and active contribution. Despite the challenges, young people across the globe are still demonstrating their leadership in preventing violence, post-conflict peacebuilding, and building resilience in humanitarian contexts. During outbreaks of violence, young people are often the first responders who are able to reach areas that international actors cannot. A recent study by One Young World found that every 1 USD invested in young people participating in their programmes leads to 13 USD of social value.

Thus, the world needs to improve its ‘commitment-in-action’ to transform the deeply-rooted attitudes and practices for systemic change. This could, for example, be done by increasing the share of global giving that goes to peace and security work with children and youth, which is currently only 0.012% as per the Peace and Security Funding Index. Another way is to find innovative, youth-friendly funding models. I hope this will also improve the status of economic engagement for the staff of youth-led peacebuilding organisations, where currently 97% of them are doing this work voluntarily.

Responding to the comments and questions of youth representatives, Madam President said:

‘Throughout my presidency, I have used every opportunity to challenge the negative narratives for young people, and to bring the spotlight on the positive contributions of young people… I support quotas for youth, women, and indigenous people in all spheres; political or jobs at both international and domestic level. I hope that one day we’ll not need them anymore… And I agree that violence is not the cause but the consequence of major structural barriers and inequality… I believe in the wealth of diversity in the world…and consider the General Assembly as the parliament of Humanity… And my commitment is to make the issues of youth, peace and security central to the work of the Member States.’

Someone once said, ‘Whatever was easy to do has already been taken up and done, only the hard one is left’. So in fact, it is on me to take it up or not. Then I think, what will I do if I do not stand up and contribute to what I believe in? And I think this is how many young peacebuilders feel all over the world when they try to contribute to systemic changes, with minimum support available to them. We stand for our collective hope and that is what we’ll keep doing!

This dialogue was organized by UNFPA, the Peacebuilding Support Office, UNDP, UNOY Peacebuilders and the Office of PGA.

Mridul Upadhyay moderated the Interactive Dialogue with the President of General Assembly on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS). He is the co-founder of  Youth for Peace International, Asia Coordinator of UNOY Peacebuilders and Global Focal Point for Humanitarian Affairs at UN Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY).