The study will document and examine young people’s roles in peacebuilding, and especially study the factors that enable or/and constrain these roles. The study will be a youth-led participatory action research in four countries: Afghanistan, Libya, Sierra Leone and Colombia. A comparative study in these four countries will allow an examination youth roles in civic engagement initiatives in different cultural, historical and geographical contexts where factors like gender and age may shape the roles of youth in peacebuilding in different ways.
The study will be centered on three guiding questions:
- What are the boosters, motivators, and barriers that influence young people’s participation in civic engagement related to peacebuilding?
- Does youth participation in civic engagement activities related to peacebuilding contribute to building peace and, if so, in what contexts?
- What are the contextual factors that make these civic engagement activities successful, how transferable are they, and how scalable are they?
The lead researcher will work with two local researchers from each country, young peacebuilders who will be responsible for collecting data from their peers using the listening and learning methodology for youth-led research.