Youths form one of the most vulnerable groups in any conflict as they can be easily be swayed to violent extremism by conflicting parties very easily. In many cases when conflicts are at the rise, there are a host of socio-economic issues that challenge youth development like unemployment, poor access to education and attraction to violence causing a threat to overall peace.
This toolkit from USAID youth participation in violent conflict and draws out lessons for development programming.
Avoiding future conflict means drawing positively on the energy and capacity of youth as the leaders of tomorrow’s societies.
Youth employment has jumped to the forefront of the international development agenda, especially with regard to stabilising fragile states.
The provision of jobs and the idea of youth employment are of paramount importance for the stabilisation of fragile post-conflict states. This document: 1) examines key issues related to youth participation in violence; 2) discusses lessons learned in developing programs for at-risk youth; 3) presents a range of program options; and 4) identifies relevant USAID mechanisms and implementing partners.
The toolkit can be downloaded from this link.
