Dear Colleagues,

We are very excited to announce that the new Youth4Peace Global Knowledge Portal is now live, with many thanks to our colleague Diana for her wonderful work!

The Youth4Peace Portal is a new multi-stakeholder partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), Search for Common Ground (SfCG) and the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY), working together through the Working Group on Youth & Peacebuilding. The platform is hosted by UNDP Youth-GPS, so far with financial support from the Oslo Governance Centre.

It will support the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security and serve the needs of young peacebuilders, decision-makers, development practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders, by providing a one-stop-shop for generating, accessing and sharing knowledge to promote and support young people’s participation in peacebuilding.

It has three main objectives:

1. Offer a global forum of knowledge and resources on young people’s participation in peacebuilding, linking an array of stakeholders in discussions designed to advance the positive contribution of young people to peacebuilding by generating new – and sharing existing – knowledge.
2. Equip young women and young men, practitioners, policy makers, academics, etc., at the grassroots, national, regional and international levels with tools and resources that can be used to inform and support efforts to enhance youth participation in peacebuilding.
3. Provide a common platform for the coordination of advocacy, policy and programming efforts to raise awareness, provide targeted information, increase the visibility of the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda, and further promote a culture of collaboration and partnerships, within and beyond the WG.

As well as providing access to the latest news, upcoming and past events, and key resources on young people's participation in peacebuilding, the portal offers a truly interactive experience: by creating a profile (it's free & will take you less than a minute!) you can join the Youth4Peace Community to:

• Have your say: Take part in online consultations – or start your own!
• Share: Showcase results, best practices & lessons learned...
• Create: New knowledge, groups, events…
• Connect: Trigger new initiatives and collaborate on common projects...

... and much more!

The portal is already buzzing with activity, including:

• Call for Applications for the Arab States Regional Youth Peacebuilding Workshop (deadline 29 October!) which will feed into the global Progress Study on the positive contribution of young people to peacebuilding mandated by UNSCR 2250.
• A new blog series developed by 18 young researchers as part of a new partnership between UNDP Youth-GPS and Occidental College on Youth & Peacebuilding.

Please take a look, spread the word, create your profile and contribute. Thank you!

Kindly,

The Youth4Peace team