Project dates and places:
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Activity 0: 14th January – 10th February – Online
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Activity 1: 11th – 19th February 2019 in Lagodekhi, Georgia
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Activity 2: February/April 2019 – Local activity
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Activity 3: 13th – 21st May 2019 in Kobuleti, Georgia
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Activity 4: May – August 2019 – Local activity
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Activity 5: September 2019 – Online
Deadline for applying: URGENT!
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Peacebuilding and conflict transformation are of increasing relevance in contemporary Europe. The adoption of UNSCR 2250 in 2015 consolidated the importance of the work of youth and youth-lead organisations and initiatives in the processes of peacebuilding. The follow-up Progress Study submitted to the General Assembly of the UN in March 2018 presented recommendations to the member states to increase these efforts and gave new directions for the inclusion of youth in peacebuilding processes.
Nevertheless, conflict and potential violent up-raisal are present at many levels all across Western Europe, and groups and movements embracing violent ideas are growing among EU societies, mostly as a reaction to complex challenges such as the migratory movements, the economic struggle of youth, the regression in democratic and participation rights, among others. The frozen and hot conflicts in the post-soviet world have no positive developments or reconciliation processes in the last years.
Aims and objectives:
This project aims to bring together youth workers and youth leaders willing to improve their competences in triggering youth-led peace-building processes at community level in their countries. Thus, this project will develop the capacities of youth leaders and youth workers to engage other youth in positive, nonviolent approaches to working with community conflicts. Specifically, the project aims at the following primary objectives:
● To strengthen youth workers conceptual understanding of peacebuilding and conflict transformation, specifically in the context of youth-led peace work
● To strengthen the competences of youth workers in planning, monitoring and evaluation of youth-led peacebuilding activities
● To empower youth workers to guide their local peers in the collective planning and implementation of youth-led follow-up projects dedicated to peace-building in order to strengthen grass-root conflict transformation processes
● To strengthen ties between people engaged in the field of youth and peacebuilding across different European regions
PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND OVERVIEW
Project duration: 9 months
Start date of implementation: January 2019
End date of implementation: September 2019
Total number of participants: 24 participants (same individuals should commit to participate for all the activities)
Activity 0: E-Learning preparation for the participants: The learning process starts with an e-learning module of 4 weeks on peacebuilding and conflict transformation. The expected amount of work per week is around 3 hours.
Location(s): Online
Date(s): 14th January – 10th February
Learning objectives:
1. Conceptual understanding of youth empowerment work
2. Basics in advocacy work
3. Basic understanding of peace work
Activity 1: Training course on peacebuilding and conflict transformation: 24 youth workers and youth leaders from the EU and the Caucasus, the primary participants of the project, attend an initial training on peacebuilding and conflict transformation in youth work.
Location: Lagodekhi, Georgia
Date(s): 11th – 19th February 2019
Learning objectives:
1. Understanding of youth and community challenges in the participating countries
2. Conceptual understanding of peace and peacebuilding work
3. Practices for youth-led peace advocacy work, especially with tools for collective intervention planning, conflict analysis and intervention design.
Activity 2: Community needs assessment: Back home, participants will conduct research at the community level to deepen their understanding of the conflict context in which they would like to place their youth-led peacebuilding initiative. The scale and scope of the respective participants’ researches depends on the outcomes of the sessions on context analysis in the 1st training course. In particular, participants will be asked to intensify and deepen their knowledge about the local conflict context in the following areas:
– Reasons and effects of the conflict
– Involved actors and affected communities
– Relationship between the actors and their power relations
– Positions, interest and needs of the identified main actors in the conflict
– Existing resources, interventions and stakeholders of peace in the conflict context.
Location(s): Local
Date(s): February/April 2019
Learning objectives:
1. Tools for analysis of community based problems support the usage of analytical tools to process the results of the community-based needs assessment.
Activity 3: Training Course on project planning, monitoring and evaluation: The same group of youth workers and youth leaders comes together to learn about inclusive and youth-led planning of peace-building initiatives on local level.
Location: Kobuleti, Georgia
Date(s): 13th – 21st May 2019
Objectives:
1. Fine-tuning the community analysis developed during the second e-learning module
2. Planning youth peace advocacy projects addressing the conflicts/challenges identified during the community assessments in cooperation between the organizations.
Learning objectives:
3. Deepening participants’ conceptual understanding of theory of change and logical framework for conflict transformation.
Activity 4: Local activities: Building on their learning from the two training courses, the 24 participants are supported in finalising the planning of their youth peacebuilding activities and implementing them locally. The format of these activities will depend on the participants in connection to with the initiatives developed during
the 2nd training course.
Location(s): Local
Date(s): May – August 2019
Activity 5: Online evaluation meetings: The primary participants come back together after implementing their local activities for a final moment of reflection and evaluation.
Location(s): Online
Date(s): September 2019
Objectives:
1. To consolidate the learning achieved in the training courses and during the implementation of the local activities
2. To evaluate and assess the implementation of local activities
PARTICIPANTS PROFILE:
- aged 18 – 30
- youth leaders, youth workers, volunteers
- having previous knowledge on peacebuilding
- living in conflict affected community
- doing something in their community and want to improve their knowledge on peacebuilding
- able to work and communicate in English
- able to participate in all the activities
- willing to share their experience with CID
FINANCIAL ASPECT
This project is supported by Erasmus+ programme.
Accommodation and lodging will be covered.
70% of travel costs will be reimbursed according to the rules of Erasmus+ programme.