Support Youth to build Peace in Nigeria

Dear Friends,

We are very pleased to report to you that from June 1-6, 2014, Executive Director of New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation, Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba, was in New York City at the invitation of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) to participate in a workshop aimed at developing operational guidance and guidelines on young peoples’ participation in peacebuilding. The workshop, organized by the Sub-Working Group on Youth Participation in Peacebuilding of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD) which is composed of United Nations (UN) entities such as the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), non-governmental Organizations, academics and young adults, was conducted at the Girls Scouts Office, 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City, USA.

This guidance is intended to be concrete and evidence-based, as well support the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of successful youth programs on the ground, and to turn the recently launched Guiding Principles on Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding into concrete measureable actions. Key objectives of the workshop included:

1. Agreement on key issues and parameters for operational guidelines on young people’s participation in peacebuilding, including selection of thematic sections
2. Agreement on the key elements of the process for developing the guidelines on young people’s participation in peacebuilding, including consultation methodology, key stakeholders, timeline, and any additional capacity requirements.

United Nations Agencies, Donors Organizations, International and local youth-based, youth focused Organizations represented at the workshop included: Office of the Secretary-General Envoy on Youth, Office of SRSG CAAC, UN Alliance of Civilizations, UN DESA Youth, UNDP, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNICEF, UNIDO, UN PBSO, UN WOMEN, Search for Common Ground, Baha’i International Community, Communities Without Boundaries, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scout, World Vision International, Center for Youth Work (Serbia), Open Society Foundation, USAID, Association Nigérienne pour La Promotion des Jeunes, Chanan Development Association  (Pakistan), Youth in Action for development (Sierra Leone), New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation (Nigeria), Peace Spiral Project – Culture of Peace, Interculturality and Human Rights, N, ational Council of Educational Promotion – CONAFE (Mexico), New England Conservatory, etc. The workshop also provided an opportunity for New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation’s Executive Director to make presentation on the peacebuilding and programs with young people to the UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD).

The UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD) is co-chaired by Cecile Mazzacurati, Policy Officer, Youth and Gender at the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO)/UNFPA and Lakshitha Saji Prelis, Director, Children and Youth Programmes at the Search for Common Ground.

New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation also attended a preparatory meeting with Isabelle Legare, United Alliance of Civilization’s Programming Coordinator at the UNAOC Office located at 405 Lexington Avenue, New York, USA.