Education is not only for youth: Training in Papua New Guinea

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

Four of us couldn’t agree more when we started discussing that UNOY needs to develop capacities of government officials, UN officials, community leaders, and religious actors to work with youth for peacebuilding. It was September 2018; Imre (UNOY Capacity Development Coordinator), Solvi (former UNOY Leading Coordinator), Lorraine (current UNOY Leading Coordinator) and I were brainstorming on UNOY’s strategic development in a sub-group during the International Steering Group meeting.

UNOY has been developing capacities of youth and youth peace organisations, but we feel a strong need to improve their working context too. Having sound understanding of youth peace and security (YPS) work, as well as being a youth-led organisation/network, naturally confer us with the required perspectives to bridge the competency gap—knowledge, skills, and attitude—among and between these stakeholders and youth. 

So, it was an obvious yes from me when UNFPA Asia Pacific regional office (APRO) recommended us to their Papua New Guinea (PNG) country office to support its Gender Youth Promotion Initiative work. It was a huge opportunity to work on the YPS agenda in the Pacific, which usually doesn’t get enough attention. As Asia coordinator, I was already reaching out to youth in Northeast Asia with UNDPPA, so the Pacific was definitely the next region for me to work on.

Together with Meghann Villanueva—UNOY’s senior trainer from the Philippines—I conducted three rounds of four-day training from 1 to 19 July on the YPS agenda (UNSCR 2250) and conflict transformation. In groups of 20-35, we equipped 87 government officers, community leaders, religious actors, UN officials, and youth leaders from Bougainville, Southern Highlands, and Hela Provinces in PNG with the skills they need to initiate community peacebuilding and partnerships for the implementation of the YPS agenda.

Papua New Guinea is exposed to severe environmental hazards, a previously very violent separatist movement in Bougainville, and frequent extremely violent tribal fights in Hela and Southern Highland. There are over 100 ongoing tribal conflicts; though there are no records, some statistics suggest around 7,000 casualties over the last 5 years or so. 

Being a highly heterogeneous country, millions of young people live in fragile and conflict-affected contexts in PNG. While Bougainville region is trying to create better youth and education policies to bring youth out of violence, the use of high-powered weapons in inter-group fighting is the key change in recent years in the Highlands. The worsening conflict dynamics has increased the threat levels, lowered the barriers to entry, and increased the killing of children and pregnant women too (which was not a practice previously). Access to arms has enabled young men, less experienced in combat and without community mandate, to act outside of consultation with traditional leaders.

We based the training design on non-formal learning methodology and adult learning principles, and the content varied significantly considering the experience and needs of different participant groups in different trainings. To name a few, overall, we covered the significance of peace, conflict, violence, and human security concepts in local contexts; inner peace; conflict/problem analysis; conflict escalation; conflict management; communication; negotiation; the YPS agenda (UNSCR 2250) and its localisation; and meaningful youth participation in peacebuilding.

These people, ranging from 20-65 years’ old, from 12 tribal communities were beautiful, reflective, and committed. In short, just amazing, as are the ground staff of UNFPA, IOM, and UN Women. Because of them, this has been the most meaningful, enriching, and fulfilling experience for me so far. There were several overwhelming moments and insights that we shared with each other. In particular, two of the participants’ reflections will stay with me, and keep motivating me for a long time.

A deep and courageous reflection came from an old leader: ‘I have almost everything in my life: garden [farms], pigs [a very important commodity there], job, children, studying etc. But I used to think that I do not have just one thing: a gun. I wanted to buy a gun to protect what I have. I was telling this to some other participants too who were travelling with me on the bus while going back from this training, “I want to buy and carry a gun with me from this big town to my community”. But this training programme and the discussions around inner peace and culture of peace has just touched my heart. Now instead of a gun, I want to carry back peace to my community’.

And from a woman community leader: ‘I always used to think young people are disrespectful, violent, and they pretend (to know) too much… And they don’t do anything good… Before this training, I never thought about root causes and structural violence and cultural violence, which made their attitude, behaviour, and context. Now, I might not be able to do a lot but I’ll listen to them’.

So, on this International #YouthDay, we would like to emphasise the importance of this year’s theme—#TransformingEducation—with a unique focus on young people’s working context beyond youth. This training is evidence that we need to think of education as an ongoing process, vital to any peacebuilding efforts, and essential that it meets the full meaning of the terms ‘inclusive’ and ‘accessible’.