The Roles and Challenges of Youth Participation in Peace Building Activities. The Case Of Bedesa Town, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Master's Thesis , 2022 , 84 Pages , Grade: 90.00

Psychology - Social Psychology

The main purpose of this study was to assess the role of youth in peace building activities in Bedesa town. To this end, explanatory sequential mixed method design was employed in carrying out the study. The target population was youths from selected areas in Bedesa town. One hundred and fifty-four youth were sampled from the target population through a stratified random sampling technique. The required data were collected through questionnaire and structured interview. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data that have been collected through close ended questionnaires, whereas the qualitative data gathered through interview were analyzed thematically to substantiate the quantitative findings.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF TABLES IN THE APPENDIX

ABSTRACT

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
1.2. Statement of the Problem
1.3. Research Questions
1.4. Objectives of the Study
1.4.1. General objective
1.4.2. Specific objectives
1.5. Significance of the Study
1.6. Delimitation of the Study
1.7. Limitation of the Study
1.8. Operational Definitions of Key Terms
1.9. Organization of the Study

2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1. Concepts of Peace building
2.2. Concepts of Youth in Ethiopia
2.3. Facts about Youth
2.4. Theories of Peace Building
2.5. Conceptual Framework
2.6. The Role of Youth in Peace Building Activities
2.6.1. Political Role of Youth
2.6.2. Socio Cultural Role of Youth
2.6.3. Justice and Security Role of Youth
2.6.4. Economical Role of Youth
2.7. Challenges to Youth Engagement in Peace Building Process
2.7.1. Socioeconomic Challenges
2.7.2. Exclusionary Political Structures
2.7.3. The Need for Psycho Social Support
2.7.4. Local Resistance to Youth Involvement
2.8. Summary

3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD
3.1. Description of the Study Area
3.2. Research Design
3.3. Source of Data
3.3.1. Primary source of data
3.3.2. Secondary source of data
3.4. Population, Sample Size and Sampling Techniques
3.5. Instruments of Data Collection
3.5.1. Questionnaire
3.5.2. Interview
3.6. Procedure of Data Collection
3.7. Method of Data analysis
3.8. Ethical Considerations

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1. Demographic Characteristics of Respondents
4.2. The Role of Youth in Peace Building Activities
4.3. Sex differences on Youth Participation in Peace Building Activities
4.4. Challenges of Youth Participation in Peace Building Activities
4.5. Peace Building

5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1. Summary
5.2. Conclusion
5.3. Recommendations

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5. (Afaan Oromo Version)

Appendix 6 (Afaan Oromoo version)

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this Thesis manuscript to my best friend, Ferhan Tajudin.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The author was born on October 30, 1992 from his mother Bedriya Ali and his father Ziyad Mohamed in Bedesa town, Ethiopia. He attended Primary School from 19995 - 2003 at Mechara Elementary School whereas he followed his Secondary School at Mechara Secondary School from 2004-2006 in Mechara Town. Then at the same town he attend his Preparatory School from 2006-2008 and completed it there. After that, he joined Jimma University in 2009 and graduated with BA Degree in Educational planning and management with CGPA of 3.38 in 2011. Following his graduation, He employed at Doba District Technical and vocational education Office in June 2012 and served there for two years until July 2014. In July 08, 2014, He transferred to Bedesa town and worked at Bedesa town peace and security office from July 2014 to January 2016, and at Bedesa town vital events registration agency from January 2016 to September 2019. Then, he joined Haramaya University to pursue Postgraduate study in 2021.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, I would like to thank Almighty Allah for his support in every aspects of my life. Without his unreserved mercy, I wouldn’t be now and couldn’t realize any of my dreams.

Secondly, I would like to express my wholehearted gratitude to my beloved wife, Fariha Deribe who played a lion’s share for the success of the final work of this thesis in sharing all the stresses and strains encountered in the course of this study. Her role was priceless for the overall success of my education from the beginning to now.

Thirdly, I would like to express my golden gratitude to my major advisor Dr. Yirgalem Alemu for his intelligible guidance, suggestions and constructive comments throughout the study which helped me to organize and improve my research work. It is due to his unreserved help, always welcome face, warmest initiation and tireless guidance that I have had a good insight into how to come up with a final work of my thesis. I would also like to express my special gratitude to my Co-advisor, Geleta Sitota (Assi Prof) for his critical reviewing of the manuscript and ever teaching comments throughout this study. Also, I want to express my gratitude to Gemechu Abera (Asso Prof) and Endris Said (Assi Prof) for their intelligible guidance and painstaking evaluation of this work. It is their skillful and considerate support that made the work to be accomplished. So I would have great respect and appreciation to all of them.

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

LIST OF TABLES

1. Summary of population, sample size and sampling techniques

2. Reliability test result

3. Demographic characteristics of respondents

4. Political role of youth in peace building

5. Sociocultural role of youth in peace building

6. Justice and security role of youth in peace building

7. Economic role of youth in peace building

8. The role of youth in peace building activities

9. Stepwise multiple regression model summary (ni = 150, p <0.05)

10 . Stepwise multiple regression coefficients

11. Independent sample t-test on sex differences in youth participation in pba

12. Challenges of youth participation in peace building

13. The level of peace building in the study area

LIST OF TABLES IN THE APPENDIX

1. Questionnaire

2. Questionnaire Afaan Oromo Version

The Roles and Challenges of Youth Participation in Peace Building Activities in Bedesa Town, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study was to assess the role of youth in peace building activities in Bedesa town. To this end, explanatory sequential mixed method design was employed in carrying out the study. The target population was youths from selected areas in Bedesa town. One hundred and fifty- four youth were sampled from the target population through stratified random sampling t echnique. The required data were collected through questionnaire and structured interview. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data that have been collected through close ended questionnaires whereas the qualitative data gathered through interview were analyzed thematically so as to substantiate the quantitative findings. The findings of the study revealed that , youth can positively contribute to peace building activities through participating in sociocultural, justice and security, politics as well as in economic activities. The sociocultural, justice and security, as well as political role of youth contributed 64% to p eace building activities. H owever, youth’s crucial contributions for sustaining peace have been under-acknowledged and lack recognition from other peace building stake holders in the study area. They are rarely included in peace building activities. Moreover, the inclusion of youth in peace building processes is selective and politicized. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference between males and females in their participation in peace building activities. E xclusionary political structures and l ocal resistance to youth from other peace stake holders and socioeconomic problems were the major factors that hinders the participation of youth into peace building activities in the study area. The local g overnments should foster meaningful youth participation in peace building processes through effective policies and programme to address the structural barriers limiting meaningful youth inclusion in peace building in order to create safe spaces for youth to work together, provide psycho-social and emotional support to youth, protect youth from all forms of violence and threats.

Key Words: Peace building, Role and Youth,

1. INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the background of the study, statement of the problem, research questions, objectives of the study, significance of the study, delimitation of the study, limitation of the study, definition of key terms, and organization of the study were discussed.

1.1. Background of the Study

These days the area of peace building receives particular attention. The main reasons for this, unfortunately, are the lack of success and the deficiency of real achievements (Autesserre, 2017). Looking at the most recent developments in Iraq and Libya only, we can easily see that the current disastrous situation in these two countries is clearly the consequence of the unsuccessful peace building process (Taksas, 2015).

Peace building is an important activity because through peace building the roots of the conflict can be removed. It far goes beyond peacekeeping and peacemaking (Deo, 2018). Peacemaking and peacekeeping can only slow the momentum of the conflict, but cannot eradicate the root causes. As long as the peacekeeping force is available and there are constraints, there is peace but once this force has withdrawn and the constraints no longer exist, the conflict soon breaks out again and even escalates (Bezawit, 2012). The conflict has never really stopped, it has just abated due to the bigger force, and its underlying causes have never been removed (Negasa, 2021). The root causes of the conflict can only be removed through peace building activities, and thus the danger of the renewal of the conflict can be reduced. In order to assure lasting and durable peace, focusing on eradication of inequalities and poverty, fostering sustainable development, ensuring transparent and accountable governance, the promotion of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law and the promotion of a culture of peace are crucial (UN, 2010) which cannot be possible without the inclusion of young people which counts 1.3 billion 15-26 years old in the world and nearly one billion live in developing countries like Ethiopia (UN, 2012).

Peace building is a long-term or continuous process which mitigates conflict operating various activities and it is the way of starting the country and society on the road of gradual sustainable development (Taksas, 2015). The sustainability and success of a peace building process greatly depends on the peace building approach, mechanisms and activities. There are many actors of peace building across the globe that has their own positions and assigned role in peace building. Youth are one of them which work with all the stakeholders and separately as well (Deo, 2018). The inclusion of youth in peace building processes is bound to facilitate sustainable peace in a society, by redirecting the energies of young people to the implementation of constructive peace projects. Incorporation and utilization of youths in peace building processes would facilitate their transformation from agents of violent conflict, to agents of peace in their societies.

Indeed, if youth can be such a strong social unit that can impact an entire nation, why do people overlook these crucial resources while working for peace building activities? Young people as a theme is vigorously discussed and debated in multiple settings, both as a safety danger and as an unexploited resource or potential. Hence, youth voices should be included in current peace-related issues in general and peace building in particular (Beyene, 2020). Justifying the active, organized, and meaningful participation of youth in issues of peace and security is an important thing which helps to avoid violence and bringing sustainable peace for once state. It is acknowledged that social exclusion is an essential ingredient that triggers a relapse into conflict (AU, 2020).

As United Networks of Young Peace builders (2015) states ironically, many scholars, politicians, media, academia, social workers etc., have focused more on destructive rather than constructive engagement of youth in peace building activities. They look youth as more a wrongdoer and connect them with violence, initiator of annihilative movement, ethnic and cultural riot and violence and so on. But the handful research has been done which shows youth are contributing to positive construction and peace building in nations (Deo, 2018). Involvement of young people’s in the participation of peace building activity is unexploited (United Networks of Young Peace builders, 2015). In many ways, young people are working for peace building but their contribution is rarely mentioned by the researcher and scientists of peace and conflict studies (Bennett, Karki, and Nepal, 2012).

Youth are underestimated as positive agents of change and key actors in peace-building, both by policy-makers and academics (Felice and Wisler, 2007). Yet, the role of youth in peace building is hindered due to the absence of adequate understanding recognition, and collaborations with young people (Ozcelik, Nesterova, Young, and Maxwell, 2021). Therefore, this study were critically examined the role of youth in peace building activities in the study area. Further, it endeavors to find out sex differences in youth participate in peace building activities; it also tried to detect the challenge that youth faced to participate in peace building activities in the study area.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

Nowadays, more than forty countries around the world are currently in the inside of a war or going through post-conflict reconstruction (Autesserre, 2017). More than two thirds of the poorest countries in the world are situated in conflict regions. The same is true here in Ethiopia. As Yirgalem (2020) stated that currently the country is in continuous crisis, ethnic based conflicts are prevailing across the country. More citizens are victims of transfer and expulsion from certain parts of the country. According to the study result of Wilton (2017), more than 600 million youth , between the ages of 15 to 29 live in fragile (breakable) and conflict affected situations across the globe. The productive sectors are often abandoned or diverted to war aims internal conflicts in within states, civil wars and global terrorist threats, are affecting 90 per cent of civilians throughout the world (Austrians Development Agency, 2011).

Building sustainable peace and stability are thus essential for development and prosperity, and a sustainable transformation in living conditions makes important contributions to build sustainable peace throughout the nation. The interaction between poverty, violence and the disintegration of states therefore necessitates an increased commitment to peace building and conflict prevention (ADA, 2011). So focusing on development is very crucial which cannot be possible without the inclusion of young people which counts 1.3 billion 15-26 years old in the world and nearly one billion live in developing countries like Ethiopia (UN, 2012).

Young people possess so much enthusiasm and desire to contribute to society, which can be positively used to peace building, fight extremism and promote community development (Bangura, 2015). However, Youth are perceived as a threat to global peace and stability. Due to this reason, the motivation to integrate young people in peace and security-issues is born primarily out of a perception that they pose a potential security threat, rather than out of a desire to work with them as equal partners (Alen and Christine, 2012). The result of the study by Sellevold (2012) implies that the prevalent image on young people is negative, meaning that they are often seen as actors for violence however, if they are provided with opportunities to socio-economic development, they can transform their violent roles and become actors in peace building (Sellevold, 2012).

The infinite contributions of African young people to peace building and security are still mostly unobserved and understudied (AU, 2020), the same is true here in Ethiopia. The available evidence regarding peace building shows that still there is a need to investigate the roles and challenges of Ethiopians young people in peace building activities in general and in the study area in particular. There are many studies which were conducted on the issue of peace building locally like; the role of Oromo Gadaa system in peace-building by Negasa in 2022; the role of civics and ethical education for peace building in Assosa Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz Region, Ethiopia by UNICEF in 2015; the role of Ethiopian diaspora in peace building by Etsegent in 2019; exploring the peace building potential of NGOs in Oromia and Gambella regional states, Ethiopia by Wondimu in 2014; the role of religion in peace building by British academy in 2015; towards building peace infrastructures at the local level in southern ethiopia: actors, their potentials and limits by Yacob in 2020; the role of traditional leaders in peace building and conflict resolution in Ogaden region, Ethiopia by Abdullahi in 2013; the role of peace education as a coexistence, reconciliation and peace-building device in Ethiopia by Megersa in 2020; the role of environmental justice and peace building practices in Ethiopia by Mengistu in 2020; the role of political settlement in state building and peace building in Ethiopia by Tadesse and Ababu in 2014.

In spite of many literature available on the role of Abbageda, religion, NGOs, diasporas, ethical education, environmental justice, political settlement, infrastructures, peace educations, community policing, siqqee, and traditional leaders in peace building activities in different parts of Ethiopia, the roles of a large youth has during the post-conflict reconstruction and peace building period has been largely understudied. On the other hand most of the research on young people in conflict focuses on young people, suggesting that a large proportion of young were increase the likelihood of instability ( see for example Cecilia, 2019; Ferdon and Simon, 2014; Rettberg, 2013; Woldman, 2009; and USAID, 2015), but does not consider the young people role in peace building. The active role youth plays as peacemakers, mediators and peace builders at grassroots and local levels are under acknowledged and they are often not included in official peace processes (Ozcelic et al., 2021). In other words, there are significant gaps to understand the role of youth play in determining the success of the peace building process. Global Youth Forum (2015) reveals young people can involve in transforming conflict, countering violence and building peace. Yet, their endeavors remain largely out of sight, unrecognized, and even undermined due to lack of enough understanding and inclusive opportunities to partner with decision-making bodies.

As it has seen from the above discussions, locally conducted studies focused on other stake holders than youth while studying the issue of peace building activities. Hence, the role of youth in peace building are still mostly unseen, lacks clear understanding, not studied well and there is no enough research regarding this topic. Then to fill the aforesaid studies gaps, the researcher was aimed to assess the roles and challenges of youth participation in peace building activities in the study area. It also wanted to answer the following research questions.

1.3. Research Questions

This study were attempted to get answers to:

1) What are the roles of youth in peace building activity?
2) Is there a mean differences in the participation of youth in peace building activities based on sex?
3) What are the challenges that youth face to participate in peace building activities ?

1.4. Objectives of the Study

Both general and specific objectives were discussed under this topic

1.4.1. General objective

The general objective of this study were to assess the role of youth in peace building activities in Bedesa town.

1.4.2. Specific objectives

The specific objectives of this study were intended to

1) Assess the role of youth in peace building activities in the study area.
2) Investigate whether there was significant difference exist between male and female participation in peace building activities.
3) Identify the challenges that youth face to participate in peace building.

1.5. Significance of the Study

The findings of the study enable peace and security stakeholders like community policing officers and peace building elders in Bedesa town district to understand the youths peace building ability and to work with them for sustainable peace in the town. Most importantly, the study helps to empower the young people for future peace building activities by identifying the major challenges that hinders them to actively participate in peace building activities in the study area. Furthermore, the findings of the study helps as a basis for other local researchers who want to conduct studies in relation to youth and peace building.

1.6. Delimitation of the Study

The researcher believes that it could be better to conduct the study in large scale. However, due to time and financial constraints, geographically the study were delimited only to youth found in Bedesa town, western Harerge zone and did not include rural youth in the area. The reason is that it is in the towns that conflict and peace building activities are mostly practiced. The selected sample population for this study were delimited to 250 Bedesa town youth aged 15 to 29 years old. Methodologically, the study was delimited to explanatory sequential mixed method design and questionnaire and interview as data collection instruments.

1.7. Limitation of the Study

It is important to note that this study has some limitations. Whatever research may be conducted, the researcher encounters a number of limitations in his study which militate against meeting objectives of the research. Accordingly, first, literature's in the area like books, reports and research works about the role of youth in peace building process especially in the context of Ethiopia in general and about the study area in particular was not available as needed to state and justify the seriousness of the issues from global to local. Due to this reasons this study lacks enough local evidence to show and support the problems under the study. Second, the study relied up on self-report instruments to measure the variables. Self-report measures are usually subjected to bias in their answers. Consequently, the honesty of the respondents was only presumed but not ascertained. The third limitation is related to the translation of measuring instrument used in the study. Translating the English instrument to Afan Oromo was difficult. Due to this reason, the translated version of instruments lacks the exact meaning of the original English version.

1.8. Operational Definitions of Key Terms

Peace building refers to the act of fostering economic and social cooperation, and trustful relationship with the different groups like (political, religious, ethnic, etc) living in the town.

Role refers to a coherent set of behaviors expected of an individual in a specific position within a group or social setting.

Youth describes a distinct phase between childhood and adulthood or it refers to any productive age group between 15 and 29 years old.

1.9. Organization of the Study

This study was organized in to five chapters. Chapter one concerned on the introduction of the study,background of the study, statement of the problem, research questions, objective of the study, significance of the study, delimitation of the study, limitation of the study, definitions of key terms, and organization of the study. Chapter two contains different kinds of literature both on the area which discusses various literature's and concepts on roles of youth in peace building as well as related empirical reviews.

The third part, which is chapter three, comprises the research methodology. The research design and research methods were explained in this chapter starting from description of the study area to how the collected data was analyzed. The following chapter, chapter four is result and discussion. This chapter mainly focuses on analyzing and discussing the collected data in its logical order. The last chapter which is chapter five is the summary, conclusion and recommendation part. Accordingly, it concludes the most important points of the study, and recommends some actions to be done in the future. In general, this research report was organized in five consecutive chapters with the list of references and appendixes.

2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the related literature's that were widely collected and coordinated according to the objectives of this study. A lot of literature's do exist in the general areas of peace building all over the world but little exists mainly on the area of the study. Therefore, thorough inquiry was done to include only relevant literature in this chapter. Related existing literature were offered in this chapter under the following sub-headings: The concepts of peace building, concepts of youth in Ethiopia, facts about youth, theories of peace building, conceptual frame work, the role of youth plays in peace building activities, like (political role, socio cultural role, justice and security, and economic role), challenges of youth engagement in peace building process like socioeconomic challenges, exclusionary political structure, the need for protection and psychological support and local resistant to youth involvement in peace building activities.

2.1. Concepts of Peace building

The word" Peace building" was first published by the functionalist David Military in 1966 (Holt, 2011). Father of peace studies Galtung, uses the term" peace building in the time of 1975 through his essay. His notion of peace building has divided into negative peace which means the absence of direct violence ( End of Violence) and positive peace which means the absence of structural and cultural violence ( Peaceful society at all position). It becomes popular during the 1990s when the UN launched several multilateral and multi-approach for peace building operations that included aid to deportees, election supervision, democratic development and the temporary administration of homes (Nikolov, 2019).

Peace building is a long- term and an inclusive democratic process that requires a close cooperation, respect, dialogue, and cooperation among all stakeholders. It's the process of cooperative trouble to promote mortal security in societies which are marked by violence and conflict. The main thing of peace building is to strengthen the capacity of societies to manage conflict without any finances to violence. In other words, we can also say, it's a process of achieving sustainable peace via icing mortal security and conciliation in societies (Deo, 2018). One of the prestigious scholars in peace building, Lederach linked peace building as the mortal capacities to fantasize new and dynamic pattern of relationship and engagement, as well as with the courage to pursue the concretization of that vision in the world to pursuing of wide- ranging social changes, peace building draws primarily upon human creativity, to transfigure the largely strange, settled patterns of peace into norm. Peace building draws primarily upon human creativity, to transfigure the largely unfamiliar, settled patterns of peace the norm (Bannett et al., 2012).

2.2. Concepts of Youth in Ethiopia

There is no universally accepted definition of the term youth. The explanation of youth is varied from organization to organization, society to society and country to country. Some define according to age group whereas others define according to maturity, thought and attitudes. Some defined according to the responsibility towards their society and community, social status with specific roles, rituals, and relationship. The UN Secretariat uses the terms young people and youth interchangeable to mean age 15-24 with the knowing that member states and other entities utilize different definitions (UNOY, 2015).

Youth is a crucial time period of physical, intellectual and social maturation in which younger humans are actively forming identities and determining acceptable roles for themselves within their community and society as a whole (World Youth Report, 2020). Second, youth are defined as a social assemble which characterized in step with sure particular social attributes that differentiate them from different groups in society with respect to authority, age, power, social position, rights, ability, dependence or independence, information and responsibility (UNOY, 2015). Thirdly, young's are defined from a psychological perspective.

The Social-psychological explanation of youth suppose that stages of human maturation and development are characterized by specific traits and activity, consequently integrating indicators such as economic, political, cultural context, and social element (Cursi, 2017). The word young has been also outlined as it is part of a biological stage process, as an constituted age group related to sociocultural aspects in the society, or as separate from the rest of the society; in this sense a group that has its own value, culture, standards and rules (Christiansen, Utas, and Vigh, 2006). When defining young, it is important to understand that youth are defined differently in different countries, societies and cultures making it important not to generalize the definition in such ways as limiting it to a certain identified group (Cursi, 2017).

To the above argument the term of “youth” have multiple meanings and different authors wrote different meanings for youth but not unique. According to, Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture of Ethiopia, 2004 (MYSCE) report, various communities and cultures in Ethiopia and other countries maintain different views and outlooks about youth depending on the level of other social and economic improvement. Due to this reasons, there is no single explanation for the word young or youth. Some nation defines the word youth as young persons whose age scope is between the end of childhood and the opening of adulthood. Same others mention to young people as youth when they begins to occupy themselves in action that are considered by the community to be expression of adulthood.

Various kinds of associations: Governmental Organizations, NGOs and civic associations in Ethiopia and other countries adopt and use various age ranges for the concept of young from the point of view of the intent which they stand for and the activities they undertake. For instance, Ethiopia Social Security and Development Policy (ESSDP) define the young as person between 15-24 years. The United Nation (UN) 15-24 years, WHO, 10-24, and expression of other countries show that different age limits have been used in defining young. For instance India, 15 up to 35 years, (CSOI, 2017), In Bangladesh 18 up to 24 years as the youth (Barua, 2016), In China 14 up to 28 (National Youth Policy, 2011), In Nepal 16 up to 40 (National Youth Policy, 2010), Djibouti 16 up to 30 years, Uganda 12 up to 30 years, Mauritius 14 up to 29 years, South Africa 14 up to 28, Nigeria 18 up to 35 years for defining youth. In line with the above report, the word “young” has different meanings in different countries.

In our country, Ethiopia, the word youth regards 15 up to 29 years old (Ethiopian National Youth Policy, 2004). Young is very essential and primary time for one and all life where they can give a lot to the world. It is a shifting stage from childhood to adulthood which is also known as puberty in which they can have got experience of physiological, social, and economic change. So, it is more a stage in life than an age (Phurailatpam, 2014; Prisca, Kandagor, and Kiprono, 2012). This is also the duration of big energy and invention.

To sum up, even though there is no universally accepted definition and age limits to the word youth, we can conceptualize it as a crucial time period of physical, intellectual and social maturation in which younger humans are actively forming identities and determining acceptable roles for themselves within their community and society as a whole.

2.3. Facts about Youth

Youth aged 15-29 years old counts 1.3 billion in the world and nearly one billion live in developing countries like Ethiopia (UN, 2012). With estimated population of about 100 million, Ethiopia is the second populous country in Africa. Growing at 2.5 percent per annum, Ethiopia’s population will reach 112 million by 2025 and 137 million by 2037 (CSA, 2013). Moreover, Ethiopia is a country of young population with over 70 percent of the total population below the age of 30 and about 45 percent of the population below 15 years of age. More than 28 percent is aged 15 to 29 (USAID, 2017). According to the Bedesa Town Youth and sport affairs office report, the total numbers of young people’s of Bedesa town aged 15 to 29 years are ­­­5,000 which is around 28%.

This huge population is a point of justification for the inclusion and consideration of youth in planning of peace building processes (Cursi, 2017). Young people need to be recognized and supported to play an important role as an agent of peace. The society needs to partner with them in order to promote the global agenda for youth involvement in sustainable peace (Abubaker, 2021).

Over the last years, the issues of young people have received greater attention in Ethiopia and the government has started to implement policies to support young people. The National Youth Policy of Ethiopia marks a major step in recognizing and promoting the rights of young people in the country (UNICEF, 2013). Youth is the most socially active part of the population. Inheriting the degree of social development, the young population forms an image of the future and should be treated as potential for innovation, the role of which must be considered in all aspects of peace building. Importantly, meaningful youth engagement is a key concept for both positive youth development and social justice (Alicea, Pardo, Conover, Gopalan, and McKay, 2012; Cammarota, 2011).

2.4. Theories of Peace Building

There are two perspective of peace building; one is civil perspective (Peace building is a post-conflict process) and UN perspective (shelter term, which is a nonstop process) (Paul, 2016). There are two sundries of peace building. A narrow description of peace structure which is grounded on negative peace is apparent in the 1992 UN agenda for peace. Where the end of peace building is explained as precluding huge position of violence. A wide description sees the end of peace building when a positive peace has been achieved & notion still is too wide to allow a clear description of the end of peace structure, as it includes a range of conditioning and issues (e.g., accommodations, peacekeeping, trauma mending, poverty reduction, democratization) (Paffenholz, 2010).

Peace building can be also divided into liberal and realistic peace building approaches. Liberal approaches of peace building focus on issues of democratization, inclusiveness, and the advancement of mortal rights (Spears, 2012). It comes out to the debates during the mid 1990s, is a follow-up to the generalities in an Docket for Peace (Paffenholz, 2010). The realist approach focuses on rebuilding the state and furnishing lesser security to nervous disputants (Spears, 2012). Still, one of the prestigious pens of peace structure has mentioned sustainable peace building too in his book called the civil society and peace building. He has mentioned, Peace building can be attributed to John Paul Led reach who developed a frame grounded on an understanding of peace building that centers on sustainable conciliation within societies (Kurtenbach, 2019).

Through the lens of realism, peace is a macro-level, top-down outcome that is primarily governed by state behavior. The spectrum of peace concepts associated with realism primarily relates to peacemaking and peacekeeping (Brigg, 2018). Leading proponents of realism do not grapple with peace building. Peace building is a post conflict process that transitions a society from war to peace, which includes a variety of sub elements, including development of infrastructure, sustainable economy, public health system, institution building, rule of law and human rights, humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, security and disarmament, education, and justice and reconciliation forums. Realist theories do not explore the internal dynamics of state building. Instead, they focus on war prevention and war termination (Spiro, 2013).

The liberal approach to peace building is broadly rooted in two main propositions (Kurtenbach, 2019). The first is that democracies are less likely to go to war. Although most research on the democratic peace has focused on interstate war, it has been evoked repeatedly by policy makers and scholars in the context of internal conflict. The second core proposition is that cooperation among states and international organizations contributes to peace. These actors do so not only through mediation and diplomacy, but more importantly, through their support for institutional and societal change (Brigg, 2018).

In nutshell, we can say that peace building is nonstop process which encompasses wide variety of conditioning which alleviate conflict similar as demilitarization, recuperation, resettlement, reintegration, icing good- governance and rule of law, reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure, economic reconstruction, and insure the presence of political, social wellbeing and mortal rights of crowd (Deo, 2018). In the conclusion, it can be asserted that no task could be more important than contributing to the establishment of an establishment and enduring peace for all humanity. The present environment of the world order demands the active involvement of the youths in peace- structure, since the transnational community is facing a lot of problems and challenges in this new period (Chakma, 2017).

2.5. Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of this study deals on the role of youth in peace building activities. In this peace building process, Political, sociocultural, justice and security and economic role of youth, as well as challenges in their participation's are essentials because they are the crucial of youth peace building activities. The figure bellow shows that the role of youth can play in peace building process and at the same time, there are obviously challenges that hinders youth’s participation in peace building process. There fore, the following conceptual framework of this study comprises the interrelated variables regarding the role of youth in peace building process as it is presented here below.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten Figure 1. Conceptual Framework

2.6. The Role of Youth in Peace Building Activities

The role of youth in promoting peace and security in Africa is expressed via Article 17 of the African Youth Charter (AYC). Consistent to this and other measure frameworks on young people, peace and security (YPS), including the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2250, the AU Peace and Security Department start the Young for Peace Africa Program in 2018 with the primary objective and responsibility of mainstreaming African youth into peace and security (AU, 2020).

It is universally accepted that concrete peace cannot be established until the democracy and good governance, human rights and dignity as well as a sound economic system cannot be ensured (Chakma, 2015). So, who can have the power and energy to apply these? Certainly the answer is Young people. Since the young's can work strongly and voluntarily for the better of the society. They have the power and strength to make everything possible. They can keep pace with the time. They can meet the needs of the time. However, many researchers, politicians, academia, media, and etc. see young people as a perpetrator in conflict but there are much young people who have been the victims of violence but continuously working for peace and peace building as peace builders. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP, 2018) bureau for crisis prevention and recovery states that there is an automatic tendency to problematic young as a factor in violent conflict while overlooking their many positive contributions to a society, including their potential role in sustaining the social fabric and peace, as well as their survival in impossible environment (Obaje and Uzodike, 2013).

Youth are and can be agents of peace building and advocates of change. If we see at the present-day, young are taking a central role in bringing changes throughout the world. In addition, violence can be avoided if they are involved in the decision-making process and given responsibility for constructive action. The ongoing Arab Spring is a good example of how youth are becoming advocates of change (AU, 2020).

Nowadays, the donors have started to treat young people as one of the leading components which influence peace building activities in the communities as well as federal level. Many organizations have introduced projects which focused on peace building through young people. They have mainly focused on training & capacity building, the formation of youth clubs, youth networks and alliances, reconciliation and reintegration, political and policies awareness, media, sport, culture, and education for peace building activities (Bennett et al., 2012). The main role youth can play in peace building activities can be categorized in to justice and security, political, economical and sociocultural roles (Bennett et al., 2012).

2.6.1. Political Role of Youth

Throughout Yemen, youth voiced little trust in political parties, viewing the state as weak and local councils as ineffective. Yet, overall young people are interested in politics and continue to see young participation in decision-making as important to building a peaceful, inclusive democracy (Kholidy, Jeddawy and Nevens, 2020). Security risks and lack of accountable political processes have severely impacted the involvement of young people in influencing decision-making. Youth-led activities help for long-term relationships and more inclusive decision-making in communities. Peaceful protests, demonstrations and public advocacy campaigns to bring about positive changes in their governors, participate in public policy changes (Agrawal, Dahal, Koirala, Pant, Adhikari and Tsuchida, 2014).

Youth’s political engagement and involvement in decision-making within political parties is even more complex and fraught with difficulties. Many are concerned that only youth groups affiliated with political parties or tribes receive support, and that political parties are exploiting youth and do not give them actual and real opportunities in decision-making (kholidy et al., 2020). The significant political endeavor of young people to the prevention of violence, and to building sustainable peace are not solely about their representation in political forums participation in constituted policy and practice, or participation in formal peace processes (UNFPA & PBSO, 2018).

2.6.2. Socio Cultural Role of Youth

Youth can make significant contributions to peace building in the area of social and cultural activities, notably through a) activities which promote social cohesion, bridging the gaps between people, building trust, strengthening cooperation and establishing common grounds; b) activities which engage young people productively and peacefully so that youth can be peace practitioners instead of a part of the conflict; and c) activities that use the arts and culture to spread peace messages (Kholidy et al., 2020). Young’s cultural and social activities contribute to reduce the tensions among people and make people feel hope and this paves the way of any peace-building process. Young people’s socio cultural activities help for self-expression, using art to send their peace message and spread a culture of forgiveness and humanity through painting, concerts, photo exhibitions and movies. Currently, in Nepal, youth are utilizing different tools such as games, songs, festivals etc. to promote peace and social harmony (Agrawal et al., 2014).

A large number of the young men and women saw their work as directly contributing to social cohesion, as well as providing support to members of the community with mental and physical well-being needs. Volunteers regularly hosts forums, programs, supporting the reintegration of ex-perpetrators into society through counseling and developing life skills, working on healing trauma, discussions and activities aimed at enhancing youth’s role and engagement in their communities (Ozcelic et al., 2021).

Working towards building social cohesion for peaceful coexistence between groups that historically have found themselves in conflict, acting as mediators and peace builders at grassroots and community levels, setting up spaces where shared visions and understandings are co-constructed, designing initiatives to challenge misconceptions, reduce prejudices, mitigate hate speech and develop respect for others, opening channels of communication and building networks with other youth, including the most marginalized (Anderson, Dayna, and Isabella, 2012).

2.6.3. Justice and Security Role of Youth

Most youth saw security and justice as essential conditions for peace building. The activists in Ta’iz prioritized security and justice over other peace requirements, though they had fairly mixed views on the possibilities for youth contributions to security and justice in their communities (Kholidy et al., 2020). Most importantly, meaningful youth participation is a key concept for both positive young people development (Alicea et al., 2012) as well as for social justice (Cammarota, 2011; Ross, 2011).

Youth can advocate for human rights and dignity and against violence in any form; community safety and local crime reduction. Young men and women are able to make contributions to security and justice in partnership with local security forces and the police (Anderson et al., 2012). Many activities focus on raising public awareness regarding personal security and safety issues, with projects on stopping the firing of weapons at weddings, improving street lighting in unsafe neighborhoods, educating on fire hazards, land mines and crime prevention, and improving traffic safety. Young people may be coordinated with the security institutions to help report robberies and theft, working closely with security or military forces, citing possible risk, securing and guarding the government public properties (Qasserras, 2016).

2.6.4. Economical Role of Youth

Improving the economic situation in each sections of the community was a key priority for youth in all locations, and is an area in which young men and women have been particularly active (Kholidy et al., 2020). Their tasks includes conducting relevant research to develop their understanding of issues and supporting change in their local communities and societies equipping themselves and their peers with various skills, including critical thinking, skills to establish income-generating activities and to drive socioeconomic development, skills volunteers activity, organizing food, water, clothing and even electricity distribution, and assisting internally displaced people. Creating or supporting new small businesses, providing small grants to young entrepreneurs, and training young people in specific vocational skills (Chakma, 2015). Young have trained others in key skills in the current job market such as online marketing, actively participating in entrepreneurship and small businesses, as well as volunteer activities (Ikerionwu, 2013).

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• Grade: 90.00
• Author: Shemsedin Mohamed (Author)
• Publication Year: 2022
• Pages: 84
• Catalog Number: V1259179
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346697936
• ISBN (Book): 9783346697943
• Language: English
• Tags: roles, challenges, youth, participation, peace, building, activities, case, bedesa, town, oromia, regional, state, ethiopia