Building Awareness Among Young People: The Launching of YPS Clubs in Burundi

March 22, 2022 Shane Wong

Shayne Wong¹, 22 March, 2022

In September 2021, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) Young Women + Leaders for Peace (YW+L) network in the African Great Lakes region with members from Burundi, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) being represented. The Training of Trainers sessions were co-hosted by GNWP, ISOKO Partners for Peace and Gender Equality, and Benimpuhwe in Kigali, Rwanda.

The sessions were attended by 28 participants from across the region where they were able to engage in dialogue and activities centered around peacebuilding, gender equality, and the implementation of the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda in Burundi, Rwanda, and DRC. These sessions challenged the various participants to think critically and develop key recommendations on how young people can be meaningfully engaged and participate at all levels of peacebuilding from development to implementation, to monitoring.

Paving a New Path for Young People

The Training of Trainers sessions encouraged participants to look at their communities and identify avenues for engagement and participation for young people in peacebuilding and gender equality. One of the participating organizations from Burundi, CIDEP, recognized the need for a program within the country that focuses on capacity building and advocacy for the implementation of the YPS agenda in Burundi. The program targets young people in school environments to help them develop YPS clubs and raise awareness on the need for and importance of the full implementation of the YPS agenda in their communities and across the country.

Aimable Nzoyisenga, the Founder and Executive Director of CIDEP, noted that programs such as this are very important in the context of Burundi to help protect at-risk youth and ensure they are meaningfully engaged within their communities. Interpeace noted, conflicts within the Great Lakes region are deeply interconnected and have resulted in the disruption of social cohesion within the region. Most of the population within the Great Lakes region are young people and they are often disproportionately affected by these conflicts. Programs such as the one initiated by CIDEP target young people at an early age to introduce them to concepts of peace and security while promoting the inclusion of youth within peacebuilding spaces.

Finding the Way Forward

As with many peacebuilding initiatives around the world, there are key barriers that the program initiated by CIDEP have encountered. One of the recurring barriers experienced by young peacebuilders around the world is the issue of funding and availability of resources. CIDEP remarked that there is the desire among the Ministry of Education in Burundi to have YPS Clubs available in all schools across the country. However, there have been challenges in meeting this due to a lack of core dedicated funding and a lack of available resources for CIDEP to ensure that these opportunities are accessible for all young people across Burundi.

Despite the limited resources and funding available, the YPS Clubs have already reached multiple schools and communities within Burundi. The clubs have introduced the concept of YPS and the importance of the agenda within the schools and have helped students and educators recognize the role they can play in building capacity for young people to engage in peacebuilding. The initiative has not only raised awareness within schools but has also educated the local communities and leaders about the need for and importance of these clubs and the YPS agenda.

The introduction of YPS Clubs in schools in Burundi is only the beginning for the implementation of the YPS agenda within the country. CIDEP continues to travel to various schools and raise awareness and build capacity among young people for peace and security within their communities and across the country. Young people who have attended these sessions have noted that this initiative is an important starting point for YPS in Burundi and they hope to see continued and increased support for the YPS Clubs so they can hopefully one day reach across the country and mobilize more potential young peacebuilders.