KPAC21: 'Tackling Power Asymmetries in Youth Participation & Security' with IDS Sussex and African Security Sector Network (ASSN)

Youth are systematically excluded from political power and economic opportunities in many parts of the world. This session focuses on youth voices and actions in contexts of insecurity in Africa and MENA region. It aimed to generate ideas for supporting critical voices and meaningful youth participation, including in aid-funded programmes and through diplomatic efforts.

Most young people are active for peace and security in everyday ways, but their initiatives get overlooked. In various places, youth have resorted to protest to make themselves heard, often finding their claims dismissed for being ‘youth’ or expressed in ways that raise discomfort with foreign aid actors. Some may disagree with how ‘peace’ gets defined by aid actors. Popular interventions have focused on youth employment to ‘keep youth busy’: framing youth concerns in reductive economic terms, which may effectively close opportunities for youth voices, especially concerning insecurity and peace.

Speakers from academia and practice used the concrete cases of #EndSARS in Nigeria, youth action in Iraq, Palestine, Kenya and Zimbabwe to examine how youth experience asymmetries and respond to it; and what international aid and foreign diplomacy could learn from youth. The session focuses on youth voices and action, for governance, peace and security; and in efforts to leave violent groups.

This session included panelists Dr. Marjoke Oosterom (Research fellow at IDS), Dr. Tarila Ebiede (Co-founder of Conflict Research Network West Africa), Rosewita Katsande (Director for the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust), Dr. Sofya Shabab (Research Officer at the Institute of Development Studies), Dr. Chloe Skinner (Post-doctoral researcher in the Power and Popular Politics Cluster at the Institute of Development Studies), Grace Ruvimbo Chirenje (Training Quality Coordinator Southern Africa Global Platform at ActionAid International Denmark), Dr. Georgia Cardosi (Researcher at RESAUD-Alioune-Badiane, University of Montreal)