Refer to conciliation resources "Peace building is a long-term process of encouraging people to talk, repairing relationships, and reforming institutions. For positive change to last, everyone affected by a destructive conflict has to be involved in the process of building peace".
In a general, the issue of peace or peace building process is responsibility for any citizen that was born in the country, or none at all. Peace building needs more cooperation and work as unity from high-passion government up to low-bottom. After the whole responsibility of peace building, there are specific roles in terms of peace building, peace keeping, and peace making processes such as government responsibility and aspects of society that need to be aware of and play their role. Typically, the government has different institutions. It is significant to include specific institutions that work on peace building for society, the goal of which is to provide citizens with a safe environment. This article explains more about the role of youth in the peace building process and what major challenges they are facing in terms of working for peace.
youth are the capital of any country. A country will not make significant progress unless it recognizes and develops its youth. If a country wants to develop in terms of the economy, production, and security, it must tap into the capacity of young people. Besides, if the country or government ignores the capacity of young people, they might lose a huge number of young generation and it might happen that other groups misuse them.
When you look back, most revolutions happened in the world, there were young people who steered. Yes, it may be correct or incorrect the way they handled it, but we are not saying that wasn’t right or wrong. Our target is the young people. They can do whatever they want. For example, the Prophet Mohamed (peace be upon him) had close friends and team members who were all young. The young people stood at his bedside and worked with him, supporting him with everything they had, and the only power Prophet Mohamed had was through young people. That message indicates the capacity of the young and the way they can drive in any environment or nation.
What could we learn from the leadership of prophet Mohamed?
The number of young people is large, and they are able to put their hands together.
Youth can do anything if they are properly trained.
Prophet Mohamed, taught them the best way to lead the world.
Our leaders have the ability to guide the youth positively.
The role of youth in peace building is very broad. Youth can facilitate, contribute ideas they can be part of negotiation steps, and also implement. The peace building process is not easy in terms of post-conflict countries, but when we look at the other hand, it depends on the way the government treats youth and creates more awareness in society while the government uses youth capacity as a key. Youth in peace building processes has increasingly been recognized as essential to positively transforming conflicts and building the foundations of peaceful and democratic societies.
Somalia has a youth bulge of roughly 75%. That is a huge number, isn't it?. If they don’t get strong and follow guidelines, they can use their power in a bad way. That means they can join radical groups or other organizations. However, the majority of the population of Somalia is made up of young people. It is unfortunate that they have not witnessed and seen the effective government system that has existed since 1991, but the government can teach them about modern government and how it operates. It should be easy this time, because large numbers of youth are learning from a varied faculty, so the government will be training young people in the near future on how to handle the system of government and lead the next generation in peace.
On the other hand, youth are currently facing several challenges, like poverty, unemployment, insecurity, lack of proper education, and many others. But that point does not indicate youth cannot work for peace, so when it comes to peace workers, the youth can work as elders and they can fulfill the roles of those. For example, a group of young people may go on a trip and they may forge teamwork and togetherness. Truly, this means youths can work together towards rebuilding their countries and also take part in peace-building.
There is an argument which is that young people might find a variety of passions in society. Some of those places and areas are very dangerous by themselves. The youth are part of the Al-Shabaab group either by force, money, ideology, and so on, and Al-Shabaab sends and carries bombs to kill people. Most of the people who rob people are young people because they are hungry. On the other hand, the people who recruit soldiers for either the government army force or Al-Shabaab and stand in the street are young people. If there is an insecurity somewhere, the first people who have suspicions are the youth.
Those points show us the youth are staying in different sectors of society. However, the government should give young people the space and work with them to take those golden opportunities in a positive way rather than have other groups use them in a bad way.
Here are some points which show us the significant role of youth when it comes to peace building and peace workers.
Youth can be lawyers for peace.
They can be peace ambassadors.
They can work as advocates for peace.
Peace-talking community mobilization conference.
They can lead the system of transformation from war to peace.
They can create public awareness in places where there is an ongoing war or post-war situation.
Youth can work together with the government system in the peace building process.
Among the youth, they can raise awareness of the places where young people meet, like colleges, universities, schools, and others.
If the youth get empowerment, encouragement, and support from the government, community, religious leaders, donors, and so on, they will be able to open negotiations with Al-Shabaab group youth and raise awareness of those who wish to join radical groups and hostilities, among other things.
They can organize annual meetings, months, and so on, which discuss youth affairs, peace, and peace building in the country.
There are many requirements which improve their achievement and goals, but I would like to mention three of those:-
They should have one umbrella that they bring to gather all the young people in the country, but if it exists, the government must be empowered in terms of finance, legist, and finally, passing laws.
supporting and assisting young people.
Avoid joining or being part of radical groups.
I traveled to ten regions in Somalia in 2018 by car and spent three months and half there. Every region I stayed for a few days launching my book called "U hiilli Ubadkaagga", so I met aspects of young people and we talked about how we work together for youth integration and we showed out some of the challenges. But I was released. The young people were very happy with each other and welcomed visitors.
There are some major challenges in the youth part of cohesion, integration and peace work.
The system of the Somali government building clans' sharing power that explains to the youth the wrong way what that means: every clan has its own place, there is no integration.
The civil war that happened in Somalia has affected such things as fighting a clan a long time ago and killing people. If the young people tell that story, their minds immediately remind them that they can’t go to another region because those people who live there killed their uncle or father, so you and them are enemies.
If you are in a place where people do not know you, they might suspect you of being part of the Al-Shabaab group or others. That is the main challenge facing young people in Somalia for a long time, because there is no confidence in society, especially for the younger generation.
Political affairs in Somalia are based on clans and regions. It is not easy to exhibit your ideas about political issues without permission from the state.
Conclusion
Nowadays, the youth love each other. There is no enemy amongst them, unless someone creates themselves. They are learning in the same places, schools, and classes. I know there does not exist a system of clans that brings unity or leads the youth, but I can say there are some ideologies that seek to unite the youth.
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