Joseph’s Journey Towards the DRC’s National Action Plan on YPS
the role young people played in the process
I’m Joseph Akilimali, co-chair of the Congolese Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) coalition, and this is how the first National Action Plan (NAP) on YPS came to be.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has come a long way in disseminating the United Nations Security Council resolution 2250 (UNSCR 2250) that for the first time recognised the role that young people play in peace and security. This was made possible by the growing will of associations, structures, and youth movements that have started to work on the YPS agenda across the country.
In the first wave from 2015 to 2017, a few young Congolese, including me, participated in international and regional summits and conferences organised by the United Nations and the African Union.
These summits were fundamental in informing young people of their role as agents of change in peacebuilding.
In 2015, Congolese youth participated in the international conference held in Jordan on the role of young people in building lasting peace and then attended training sessions on the adoption of UNSCR 2250. In the same year, other young people from the DRC participated in the Central and West African regional consultations on UNSCR 2250 in Benin. These consultations contributed to the launch of the progress studies concerning the UNSCR 2250 in Central and West Africa and facilitated the adoption of the second resolution on YPS, UNSCR 2419, in December 2018.
Between 2019 and 2020, I took part in regional consultations on the roles and contributions of YPS in Africa. For example, I attended the Validation Workshop of the Continental Report on the roles and contributions of YPS in Africa and the one on Validation of the Continental Framework on YPS held in Accra, Ghana.
The dissemination campaigns for UNSCR 2250 were conducted in several provinces of the DRC, as many young Congolese activists were working on this resolution and using it as a tool to claim their place in decision-making processes through various initiatives.
In December 2020, the Congolese government finally institutionalised the Ministry of Youth, New Citizenship, and National Cohesion as the National Technical Secretariat for the Implementation of UNSCR 2250 in the DRC (STN-2250/DRC).
In December 2021, organisations, movements, and associations of young people from civil society working on the issues of peace and security came together to launch the Congolese YPS coalition, of which I am a co-founder. The coalition played a leading role in the process of developing the NAP for the implementation of UNSCR 2250 in the DRC from the beginning until its official launch on 12 August 2022.
The DRC Coalition was used by the National Technical Secretariat 2250 to conduct a dissemination campaign and data collection for the development of the NAP. We specifically used four means of data collection:
- The survey questionnaire administered to respondents
- Data collection by SMS via U-Report
- A chatbot (WhatsApp)
- Online via a KoboCollect link
The encoding and interpretation of the data were conducted by members of the coalition; a condensed report was drawn up for this purpose and submitted to the consultant recruited by the government to support the process of drafting the NAP. Young people also took part in all NAP pre-validation and validation sessions.
The dissemination campaign concerned the twenty-six provinces of the country and the capital Kinshasa. The campaign reached more than 50,000 young people, and 5,000 responded to the survey questionnaire, which compiled their aspirations and suggested activities for the five pillars of the resolution.
It is worthy to note that this campaign was meant for young people aged 15 to 35, including pupils, students, young people living with disabilities, young people with albinism, indigenous young people, those living in internal displacement camps and military camps, young people from religious denominations, and young people from political parties, as well as those grouped in different associations, structures, and movements across the country.
I was delighted to see young people enthusiastically engaging, taking responsibility, and working thoroughly with passion and professionalism to fully contribute to the entire process.
This may guarantee the success of this first-generation NAP for the DRC. Nevertheless, it requires support from both the government and its partners.
Written by
Joseph Akilimali, Co-chair of the Congolese Youth, Peace and Security coalition, Executive Secretary of UNOY member Youth for Peace DRC, and the Secretary General of Génération Epanouie ASBL.