Peacebuilding training for youth from Taiz and Hodeidah

In May and June 2016, Saferworld’s partner organisation in Yemen, Youth Without Borders (YWBOD), held two training sessions with youth from Hodeidah and Taiz to help youth activists promote peacebuilding and social justice. The sessions raised issues surrounding conflict resolution and local peacebuilding as well as trained the participants in practical skills such as risk analysis and action planning that youth initiatives consider important to their work on the ground.

Due to the challenging security situation in Taiz, YWBOD and the participating local initiatives decided to hold the training in the neighbouring city Ibb, where 19 young activists joined the sessions for five days.  The training in Ibb was followed by a similar one in Hudeidah, which was attended by 20 young women and men activists, representing 10 local initiatives in the governorate.

At the end of each training, YWBOD team members encouraged all participants to develop their own action plans for small projects on grassroots peacebuilding to promote peace and conflict resolution. This will be followed up with a micro-grants and mentoring scheme that YWBOD will launch, with support from Saferworld. The scheme aims to support the participants and their local initiatives to implement peacebuilding activities within their communities, building on years of work with Yemeni youth, particularly within the last year of the ongoing conflict.

These activities are part of Saferworld’s Youth Agents for Peace project, which supports Yemeni youth activists in peacebuilding efforts at local and governorate levels, through capacity building, training, networking, lesson sharing and providing small grants to support local activities. Through a micro-grant scheme and mentoring, the project has supported local activities across Yemen such as an interactive theatre show in Hodeidah and a Pecha Kucha event in Aden promoting youth employment and peace. It has worked with its network to advocate for peace among national and international audiences through social media campaigns, including the “Let’s Coexist” video, and a video on a Yemeni street artist - #MakeArtNotWar.

Read more about Saferworld’s work with Yemeni youth.

“The scheme aims to support the participants and their local initiatives to implement peacebuilding activities within their communities, building on years of work with Yemeni youth, particularly within the last year of the ongoing conflict.”

Saferworld