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Sudan

UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security launched regionally in Darfur

On 11 October 2017, UNDP Sudan, and State Partners successfully concluded a regional launch of the United Nations Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security (UNSCR 2250) in Darfur under the auspices of its youth flagship project – The Youth Volunteers Supporting Peace and Recovery in Darfur Project (YoVoReD).

The UNSCR 2250 was issued on the 9th December 2015 as the first resolution that recognizes the important, constructive and positive contributions of youth in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security across the globe. Through the launch workshops, UNDP and partners created awareness about the resolution, drew attention to the challenges affecting the participation of youth in peace and security process, galvanized partnerships and called on the government and all stakeholders to join hands in implementing the provisions of the resolution at the national and state levels.

The regional launch followed a series of consultative workshops held in the five states of Darfur in September and October 2017. It aimed to consolidate the outcomes of the state level workshops, establish consensus on the key priorities and agree on common approach and strategies for addressing the challenges identified.

With youth at the centre stage, the state and regional launch workshops were organized in collaboration with State Governments lead by the State Ministry of Youth and Sports in the five Darfur states, UN agencies including UNICEF , United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Civil Affairs Section of the AU - UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as well as national NGOs including: VNW, ERRADA, NIDO, CFCI, BORD, MDO, TDO and BHA.

A total of 57 participants representing Native administrations, Reconciliation committees, Youth and Women unions, IDPs, Returnees, the Peace centre, Darfur 2030 (a local youth initiative), the UN, Government authorities, NGOs and YoVoReD youth volunteers from the five Darfur states took part in the regional launch workshop in El Fasher, North Darfur.

Proceedings of the regional launch workshops included presentations on the outcomes of the consultation workshops from the five Darfur states, followed by group work during which participants identified and consolidated the most pressing issues affecting the ability of the youth to play meaningful roles in the peace and security processes in the Darfur region. A Darfur-wide action plans were developed to address the issue in the short and long term.

Mr. Mohamed Hassan Ali, a Youth Volunteer from East Darfur, commented that, “It was remarkably inspiring to meet with other stakeholders and peer-youth volunteers from the five different states and to discuss the major issues affecting the youth and peace together. Thanks to the workshop, I plan to establish youth associations,so that we will be able to involve more youth and develop partnerships with other parties in order to carry out the action points that we came up with at this workshop. I feel this is a good start!”

Further, Dr. Bashir Muktar Ahmed, Director of General in State ministry of Youth and Sports in the South Darfur State expressed his sentiments: “I believe this is the first regional workshop involving state ministries, youth, national NGOs and the UN from all five Darfur States together under one roof. Since we identified the issues and action points, we now need to implement them on the ground. The State ministry of Youth and Sport will take initiatives to deliver the activities. Youth are an important part of us (government), therefore, I want them to feel that they play a significant role in the society with us.”

UNDP is currently planning to organize national level launch of the UNSCR2250 in December 2017.

YoVoReD has been made possible due to the generous financial support from the Government of Japan.