The Missing Peace: Youth, Peace & Reconciliation Project is an EU-funded Erasmus+ project, managed by Léargas. Facilitated by a consortium of partners across 6 countries, including the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland, this 2.5 year project got underway in March 2023.
The goal of this project is to build the capacity of youth workers and youth organisations to engage young people, including a particular focus on young women, in peacebuilding and reconciliation processes.
If you are a young person (18-30 years old), a youth worker, or involved in delivering non-formal education methods and are interested in learning more about The Missing Peace Project, we would like to hear from you.
Email: amina.moustafa@glencree.ie.
In the lead up to and during 2022, through its work with members of the Glencree All-Island Women’s Peacebuilding Network and as an active member of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Glencree Women’s Leadership Programme (WLP) identified a lack of youth participation in peacebuilding. This was particularly acute among young women, raising a further concern in terms succession planning to ensure women’s voices are adequately represented in peacebuilding processes into the future.
This led to the successful application and launch by the WLP of a 12-month EU-funded European Solidarity Corps ‘Missing Peace’ project aimed at building leadership skills, developing an understanding of Women Peace & Security issues, teambuilding and shared learning of young women. This project took a co-design approach in which the young women led the design and pace , facilitated and supported by Glencree. Five young women participated in this initial project and significantly increased youth participation in the Glencree Network throughout 2022. As this one-year project drew to a close, further learnings and network development subsequently led to Glencree’s application to the EU to support a collaborative partnership among European partner organisations to explore good practices to promote young people's meaningful participation in peace processes. In 2023, Glencree, together with a consortium of partners, began work on the Erasmus+ ‘The Missing Peace: Youth, Peace and Reconciliation’ Project.
#NonFormalEducation #Peacebuilding #Reconciliation #EngagingYouth #WomensVoices
Ireland’s Third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security states that women can present a unique perspective on social issues affecting our communities and can offer innovative solutions. Moreover, it encourages young empowerment and engagement in efforts to prevent and resolve conflict.
In the Progress Study on UN Resolution 2250 Youth, Peace and Security, ‘The Missing Peace’ (after which the project is named) warns that policies built upon stereotypical representations of young people ‘repress the legitimate participation of young people in political processes, social movements, peaceful protest and expressions of dissent’.
The Missing Peace project brings together a consortium of partners from across 6 countries: the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, Ireland; CGE Erfurt E.V., Germany; CitizenAct, Cyprus; Varėnos Kultūros Centras, Lithuania; EKE Bitola, Macedonia and TE IS Foundation, Hungary.
Using a co-design process, project partners draw on their collective knowledge, skills and experience to consider and explore how non-formal education and youth work can be incorporated into peacebuilding across Europe.
This exploration will lay the groundwork for the development of pedagogical interventions, a training programme for young people and youth workers, and a practical toolkit that will be made available to support communities in engaging young people in peacebuilding across Europe.
Kick-Off Meeting and Study Visit - Glencree, March 2023
A project Launch Meeting and Study Visit to Glencree was fundamental in building relationships and strong collaboration between the partners. Over the course of 5 days, a series of facilitated dialogues, workshops, presentations, stakeholder site visits and networking events were held with the purpose of:
Youth Exchange - Lithuania, May 2023
From 22-29 May 2023, the consortium came together in Lithuania for a Youth Exchange with the objective of exploring how to promote youth-led peacebuilding and community development through youth work.
Over the course of the Exchange, 25 young people including 3 members of the Glencree All-Island Women’s Peacebuilding Network, supported by 2 facilitators, went on a journey to consider what is meant by conflict and how we fit into the picture of peacebuilding and peacekeeping. Methodologies ranged from cultural exchanges to creative arts incorporating movement, storytelling, music and lego! A ‘Human Library’ gave participants a chance to share their work in the host community and to learn from the youth education and peacebuilding work being done there.
Training Course - Germany, 18-23 July 2023
Over 30 participants, including youth workers, peacebuilders, non-formal educators and 5 members of Glencree’s All-Island Women’s Peacebuilding Network, came together for a 6-day training course in Weimar Germany in July 2023. Led by the consortium partners, the focus of this training course was to connect, share learning and explore different approaches to promote youth engagement in peacebuilding. Activities ranged from peer-to-peer, experiential and academic inputs to a series of pilot workshops as part of the development of a project 'toolkit' for youth workers and organisations.
Mentorship Programme
Consortium partners CGE Erfurt e.V. (Germany) and Citizens Act (Cyrpus) hosted online webinars in December 2023 and January 2024 respectively to continue the process of developing the project toolkit. The design and development of the toolkit both draws on the experiences of youth workers while also helping to build their capacity, including the development of a training module, which they can adapt locally during the implementation stage of the project.
This was followed by a Glencree-hosted webinar in February 2024, which looked further at how the consortium can support participants with local implementation of their learnings. This webinar featured a segment with members of Glencree’s All-Island Women’s Peacebuilding Network who took part in earlier activities of the project including youth exchanges, training courses and partner meetings. Through their participation, the women formed meaningful connections across generations through sharing of their lived experiences with others. From their involvement, a group of 5 young women, supported by other women in the Network, went on to develop and successfully secure funding for their own European Solidarity Corps project - Transgenerational Storytelling. Some of the women involved shared their experience of this project development and grant writing process as part of the webinar.
Study Visit - North Macedonia
In May 2024, the consortium partners came together for a study visit in North Macedonia which included a research review of best practice for youth engagement & participation in peacebuilding. The partners also worked on developing the youth mentorship component of the project. A report on this visit will follow soon.
Webinar - Community Practices of Inclusion, Fighting Discrimination, and Conflict Transformation
In June 2024, our Hungarian project partners TEIS hosted a webinar on "Community Practices of Inclusion, Fighting Discrimination, and Conflict Transformation". Guest speaker at this event was Natalia Chardymova - a member of the Council of Europe Trainers Pool and former Education Advisor responsible for developing and coordinating the Council of Europe's education programmes on human rights, no hate speech and peace education.
Educational Pack Development
In July, the Consortium partners reconnected online with youth and community sector workers, young peacebuilders and various practitioners who have engaged throughout the project lifecycle to review and continue the development of modules which will form part of the project Educational Pack.
Project Toolkit and Pilot Planning
Monthly Erasmus+ partners meetings have been ongoing in the latter part of 2024 to finalise our project toolkit and plan pilot activities. During the November meeting, the focus was a discussion on a series of podcast episodes which will cover non-formal education practices from Germany, Cyprus and Hungary and will explore storytelling approaches used in Ireland and North Macedonia.
The study visit within the project ‘The Missing Peace’ was a truly enriching experience, as it encouraged us to look deeper into the complexity of conflicts and see them from a positive perspective for potential improvement.
EKE Bitola, partner from North Macedonia
Aoife Redmond, Peaceplayers Northern Ireland & member of Glencree's All-Island Women's Peacebuilding Network, shares her poem at the Youth Exchange in Lithuania as an illustration of how conflict can manifest in the body.
Youth Exchange - Lithuania, May 2023
Participants in the Training Course - Germany, 18-22 July 2023
Members of Glencree's All-Island Women's Peacebuilding Network were among the participants who travelled to Germany for the Training Course
Monthly partner planning meetings to finalise the project toolkit and plan pilot activities including development of a podcast series
