UN Women, in partnership with UNAOC, UNICEF, and UNFPA, brings together 20 young women peacebuilders from around the world for a pilot programme aimed at strengthening their leadership and peacebuilding capacities.
Tbilisi, Georgia, 20 March 2023 – After a competitive selection process with over 4,500 applicants, 20 young women representing young women-led peacebuilding organizations from 20 countries met today in Tbilisi, Georgia, to begin a four-day workshop under the pilot initiative “Strengthening Young Women Peacebuilders’ Capacity in Complex Crises.” This programme was developed by UN Women in partnership with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), UNICEF, and UNFPA, and is supported by the Australian Government.
During the four-day workshop, participants will engage in a range of activities to enhance their skills in key policy areas, including peacebuilding and sustaining peace, as well as the women, peace, and security (WPS) and the youth, peace, and security (YPS) agendas. They will also learn essential project management skills, such as project design (conflict analysis, theory of change, logical frameworks), fundraising, donor outreach, reporting, effective communication, advocacy, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E).
The workshop will be conducted in English with interpretation available in Spanish and French. The programme has been designed to be dynamic and participatory, creating a safe space to facilitate discussion, exchange, and learning. An outcome document from the workshop will be prepared and disseminated to other youth-led organizations and within the Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security.
“Young women peacebuilders, activists and local organizations led by young women are key actors in building and sustaining peace, providing humanitarian relief in their communities and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing conflicts. They also do the oftentimes time-consuming and difficult work of advancing gender equality in fragile contexts.”
Sustainability of the Initiative
This programme aims to have a long-lasting impact for the organizations supported. Through these capacity-building sessions, it is expected that the young women-led organizations will have increased their capacity to access funding from other donors. In addition, the organizers will facilitate contact with relevant country offices to establish future partnerships.
This initiative runs from June 2022 to July 2023. Based on the lessons learned from the first edition, it is envisioned to scale-up in 2023-2024.
Join @UN_Women, @wphfund, @UNAOC, @UNFPA, @UNICEF, and @dfat on social media to discuss the programme and to amplify the work of the young women peacebuilders using the hashtags: #YoungWomen4Peace #YoungWomenBuildPeace2023 #Youth4Peace