Youth and Peace Education (YPE)

The Youth and Peace Education Program (YPE)

In all the recent West African wars (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire), the youth were exploited and used as pawns to sustain the war. Conflicts and wars in West Africa have left young people vulnerable. Yet, despite the proliferation of wars and its negative impacts on young people in the sub region, they are rarely involved in finding solutions to conflicts simply because they generally lack the skills and capability to make meaningful contributions. However, when young people are informed and empowered, they can become agents of change and could determine their own fate and the fate of their respective nations.

Objectives of YPE:

• Increase awareness of the use of non-violent strategies among youths in conflict transformation;

• Provide a platform for young people’s involvement in peacebuilding;

• Facilitating the integration of education for peace into national formal education structures in West Africa;

• Identify and promote ‘Role Models’ for the youth;

• Harmonize and strengthen linkages between formal and non-formal education structures.

WANEP believes that young people should be included in the various peacebuilding and development processes, which will create the opportunities to reduce the risk of heightened insecurity and instability in the sub-region.  Since May 2001, WANEP has developed peace education pedagogical materials in English and French, trained 210 teachers in peace education, 413 peer mediators and established peace clubs in 65 schools across seven countries in the pilot phase.

With the devolution of responsibility for program implementation by the National Network Secretariats, WANEP Regional Secretariat as part of its capacity building focus on the networks will work to support all networks to allow for the scope of the program to cover all countries within the WANEP national network structure and also include young people from the non-formal sectors. WANEP intends to carry on the peer mediation programs that are being implemented in schools.  WANEP plans to continue the review of the materials and lobby for their formal integration into curricula and integrate peace education with human rights education in schools.

Expected Outputs

• Increased number of trained youths active in non-violent and peace education;

• Published materials for peer mediation, peace education, curricula developed in partnership with governments and school teachers;

• Identified list of role models for West African youths;

• Peace Education becomes a full-fledged programme of WANEP.