Protected and Resourced Young Peacebuilders in MENA

an insider’s perspective

It is a sunny and warm day when UNOY members from all over the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are meeting in Amman, Jordan to take part in UNOY’s Protection and Financial Sustainability Training.

Finally meeting colleagues and peace activists after weeks of online sessions feels exciting and long-awaited. Follow their journey during these past few months to discover how they got there!

background

In 2020, 30% of UNOY Peacebuilders declared having faced intimidation, threats or violence as a result of their peacebuilding work and activism. A vast majority of UNOY Peacebuilders from MENA have rated violence, war and its consequences as the biggest challenges in their region. Consequently, they have communicated feeling extremely unsafe when carrying out their peacebuilding work.

Young activists from the region have also reported the need to be supported with funding. Therefore, financial support and sustainability remains the biggest and most pressing challenge for UNOY members. Next to access to funding opportunities, member organisations have expressed the need to be trained in how to identify and approach suitable funders, as well as develop the capacity to pursue alternative funding to ensure their financial stability.

Training

Our members in MENA identified financial sustainability and protection of young peacebuilders as priorities in the region. Starting from January 2022, UNOY organised a training programme combining capacity development on both topics. On the one hand, the training focused on increasing members’ ability to raise funds, become more financially sustainable, and promote youth-inclusive funding. On the other hand, the programme also intended to increase members’ capacity to mitigate and prevent digital, physical, and psychological threats.

The training was divided into three components:

• Online training on protection and financial sustainability for UNOY members in MENA;
• In-person meeting in the region;
• Research report on protection and financial sustainability in MENA.

The in-person meeting had a huge impact on creating ties for a stronger youth peacebuilding network in MENA. We will now leave the floor to Vera, one of the participants, who will tell us more about her experience in Amman:

“UNOY organised a regional in-person meeting for its MENA members in Amman on the last week of May 2022 through which we had the chance get to know our colleagues in the region and their inspiring work in peacebuilding. The meeting included representatives of the MENA UNOY regional members from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Tunisia… and the organisers and co-director Eliška Jelínková from the Hague. The training mainly focused on storytelling, protection, financial sustainability and MENA region’s members action for the next period. The meeting also included highlighting the results of the research conducted by UNOY and MENA member organization from Iran, PeaceMentors, which was conducted earlier with the members and which focused on the protection and safety barriers and challenges for MENA members of UNOY. The highlight of this meeting was the networking opportunity with all fellow members with whom we met physically and exchanged experiences in person for the first time. Under the programme, I was representing Peace of Art organisation, Lebanon, and its approaches in using art, sports and culture for peacebuilding. This was a great chance to share our approaches and programmes with our partners from the MENA countries, who also shared their own different approaches towards peacebuilding. Cultural visits were also included in the programme, concluding with each member representative pitching their work to all attendees and trainers.”

Based on insights from the programme, a team of young researchers will conduct research and produce a report on barriers to advancing protection and financial sustainability of young people and youth-led peacebuilding organisations in MENA. Stay tuned!

Thanks to all the participants involved in the training,
you’ve made it special!

Written by

Vera Al-Mawla, President and Co-founder of Peace of Art NGO.

Sofia Biscuola, Communications Officer at UNOY