An interview about youth participation in peacebuilding

In today’s rapidly evolving world, the voices and ideas of young people are more important than ever. To create a peaceful and inclusive society, it is crucial to engage and empower youth effectively.
However, integrating young individuals into organizational frameworks in a way that unlocks their full potential can be challenging for many. Within the JISRA program, we’ve been working with youth expert Sölvi Karlsson to enhance meaningful youth participation in peacebuilding initiatives. He highlight the importance of integrating youth into organizational frameworks and decision-making processes. By employing inclusive practices and leveraging the unique strengths of today’s youth, organizations can drive meaningful change and create a more inclusive society.


Can you tell us about your background and current role?
Sölvi: “I’ve been working as a specialist on Youth Participation for Search for Common Ground for over six years now. My background is in the youth movement and youth sector. Before joining Search, I co-led an organization called the United Network of Young Peacebuilders, which is the global umbrella for youth-led peacebuilding organizations. Within JISRA, my role involves strategically advising and supporting country teams and consortium partners to enhance meaningful youth participation in peacebuilding initiatives across JISRA countries.”

What drives you in this field?
“My goal is to make sure young people have opportunities to shape the world they live in. These opportunities are important to build fairer societies where people feel capable of pursuing the future they want. Overcoming structural barriers and creating new opportunities is what drives me.”

Strategies for Effective Youth Engagement

How can organizations better support youth engagement?
“Even if an organization is not specifically youth-led, it is important for any organization aiming for social change to create opportunities for meaningful youth participation and leadership. Youth form such a significant part of the population that if we don’t include them in shaping our work, then we are really missing out on an opportunity to be informed by the realities of a huge portion of the population.

To integrate youth perspectives into decision-making processes, organizations can employ several methods. For example, they can consult and seek advice directly from youth to better understand their realities and priorities. They could also establish formal bodies like youth advisory councils to facilitate ongoing input and engagement. Or they could collaborate with youth-led actors, organizations, and communities to expand their reach and relevance, fostering partnerships that enrich programming and initiatives.”

A Three-Step Approach to Youth Participation

What approach would you recommend for effectively engaging young people?
“For JISRA, we have outlined a three-step approach which I think captures some of the most important building blocks for meaningful participation. The first step involves mapping and reaching out to identify youth relevant to your work within communities and establishing relationships to build trust. It is important to understand how youth are organized in your own community.

The second step focuses on supporting youth capacity and action through training and creating opportunities for youth to enter new spaces where they can address their goals. This should include fostering intergenerational collaboration, which involves creating opportunities for younger and older generations to work together and supporting older adults in understanding how to effectively collaborate with youth.

Finally, the third step is ensuring the inclusion of youth in decision-making processes, such as designing activities, determining resource allocation through mechanisms like participatory grantmaking, and including youth in advisory roles to ensure that their perspectives directly influence the organization’s direction. By implementing these strategies, organizations can create a more inclusive environment where youth are not only participants but also drivers of meaningful change.”

Participatory Grant-Making: Empowering Youth and Women

You mentioned participatory grant-making (PGM) as an inclusive practice. Could you elaborate on that?

“So far, we have implemented two rounds of participatory grantmaking across all seven JISRA countries. Through participatory grantmaking, both youth-led and women-led groups have had the power to define what matters in their own communities and determine resource allocation over initiatives in response to the dynamics they see. This way, we have really put power in the hands of youth as well as women in communities across all JISRA countries.

This deliberate decision to allocate dedicated resources to a mechanism which puts power in the hands of youth and women in our communities is something that everyone in JISRA can be proud of.”

Addressing Stereotypes and Embracing Technology

One persisting stereotype about today’s youth is that they are passively consumed by technology. How do you see this in terms of youth engagement?
“Youth have always been accused of being passive and seen as lacking agency. Technology is simply one of the latest excuses used by older generations to justify that view and maintain gerontocratic systems of power. Today’s youth are the most connected generation in history. Growing up in this environment, they possess unique strengths in adapting to new technologies and have a better starting point than older generations. Youth’s connectedness revolutionizes their ability to organize, enabling them to mobilize globally and make positive changes worldwide.

At the same time, this can lead to a very narrow view of the roles youth can play where they are allocated roles primarily to social media, IT systems, and the like despite their broader strengths and capabilities. Young people know their own realities and experiences in a way that nobody else can. They often have access that others may not in the places where they live. Therefore, I’d say technology is absolutely an important part of the strength that youth have. It’s not their only strength, however.”