Introduction
Across the globe, there is an overwhelming increase in the number of attacks by terrorist organisations as well as other violent extremist groups motivated by several reasons including social, economic, and political factors. In Nigeria, the Northeastern States, particularly the areas known collectively as the BAY region (Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe) are the epicentre of violent extremism. In the last two decades, millions of lives and properties have been lost as a result of the activities of these groups. At the centre of these violence are young men and women who constitute the majority of those affected by the activities of these groups. Young people are also more vulnerable and as such are easy targets for recruitment by these extremist groups.
Thus, sustainable solutions to preventing and countering violent extremism must entail working with young people as equal partners. Yet, what we often witnessed globally is the exclusion of young people especially in the decision-making processes of all of these interventions. This is largely because of the stereotypes that people have about young people being either perpetrators or victims of violence. While it is true that some young people do indeed act as perpetrators of violence, this one-sided narrative often fail to take into account the positive contributions of millions of youths working to build peace both within and across their communities and the world at large.
One of the first major steps in putting young people at the heart of peacebuilding efforts especially when it comes to preventing and countering violent extremism was taken in 2015 when the United Nations Security Council adopted the Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security. Adopted on December 9 2015, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 represents the first attempt by the United Nations to give formal legitimacy and recognition to the efforts of youths on issues related to peace and security.
This resolution challenges the negative perspectives that are too often associated with young people and in turn created a new narrative of youths as agents of peacebuilding. The resolution mandates UN member states to ensure that young people needs are taken into consideration in peacebuilding programmes and policies. The UNSCR 2250 identified five pillars to ensure meaningful participation of youth in peacebuilding:
1. Participation: Asks UN Member states to increase inclusive representation of youth in decision-making at all levels;
2. Protection: Requires that young people be protected from every forms of harms especially in conflict situations;
3. Prevention: Emphasises that all member states work towards the creation of an enabling environment for youths to promote violence prevention activities;
4. Partnership: Stresses that partnership is crucial for sustaining peace and urged government to maintain strong partnership with young people.
5. Disengagement and reintegration: This pillar underscores the point that youth needs should be mainstreamed in policies around disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR).
Following the adoption of the UNSCR 2250, the United Nations encouraged all its member states to work towards the domestication of this resolution in their countries to suit their local contexts. In Nigeria, there have been several efforts aimed at strengthening and domesticating the Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda both locally and nationally since the adoption of UNSCR 2250 in December 2015.
Organisations like BBFORPEACE also embarked on massive awareness and rallying of young people around the resolution. Several youth-led organisations also used the resolution 2250 as an effective advocacy tool to call for the implementation and domestication of the YPS agenda at all levels. Social media hashtags like #NigeriaYouth4Peace, #ActOn2250, #Yes4YPS, #Youth4Peace, etc. were also used by these youths to call the domestication of the UNSCR 2250 in the country.
Efforts of the Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE) in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism
Established in 2016, Building Blocks for Peace Foundation, also known as BBFORPEACE, is a registered non-governmental and non-profit youth-led organisation working on countering violent extremism, conflict prevention, peacebuilding, accountability, good governance, and sustainable development in Nigeria. BBFORPEACE was founded against the backdrop of the adoption of the UNSCR 2250 to mobilise, raise awareness, and empower young people for the implementation of the youth, peace, and security agenda The organisation has its origins in a youth-led movement known as the Nigeria Youth 4 Peace Initiative established to mobilise vulnerable youths to peace actions. The efforts of the Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE) in preventing and countering violent extremism is done through what is called the “CARE” Model:
C- Capacity Building and Training
A- Advocacy
R- Rewards Systems
E- Empowerment, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Entrepreneurship
C- Capacity Building and Training
BBFORPEACE’s capacity building work is aimed at strengthening the peacebuilding capacities of young people through trainings and workshops on peace dialogue, negotiation skills, civic education, conflict prevention, and mediation. The purpose is to train young people and provide them with pertinent skills and knowledge that they need to prevent violent conflicts as well as disseminate peace messages. They organise peace education and sensitisation training especially in schools and communities because we believe that just as young people can be trained to join extremist groups, they can also be trained to embrace peace.
The organisation also utilize the power of social media in raising awareness and sensitizing the public on the need for social cohesion and peaceful coexistence especially in a multi-cultural country like Nigeria. To build trust among different actors, they do a lot of dialogue interventions. BBFORPEACE also carry out peer to peer exchange sessions, intergenerational dialogue, interreligious dialogue, intercultural dialogue, as well as multi-stakeholder dialogue, where they bring people together various actors working on YPS issues to learn from one another, share experiences, and also best practices.
Since 2016, over 2000 youths have benefitted from these capacity building sessions both online and offline. The organisation also ensure that they involve various government agencies like the National Orientation Agency, as well as security forces in our capacity building programmes.
A- Advocacy
At BBFORPEACE, they do a lot of programming around policy advocacy and in the domestication of relevant normative frameworks such as the UN Plan of Action against Violent Extremism, the SDGs, UNSCR 2250, UNSCR 2419, UNSCR 2535, the African Union Continental Framework on Youth, Peace, and Security, among others. They engage with policy makers on the best ways to strengthen the YPS agenda and create the needed institutional framework to support young people’s effort on conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The organisation also interact with different stakeholder groups to advocate for the meaningful engagement of youth in policy process and decision-making at all levels.
Building Blocks for Peace Foundation also invest in evidence-based research as part of their advocacy tools to stakeholders. They believe that just as people are always too quick to show statistics of youths involved in violence, they should also have their own evidence to counter such narratives by showcasing the positive contributions of young people to peace and security. For example, in 2020, they published one of their flagship publication, which is titled “Connecting and Amplifying Voices of Youths Building Peace in Nigeria”, which illuminates the peacebuilding work of young people across various parts of Nigeria. The organisation also conduct advocacy visits to community leaders, traditional and religious leaders, as well as other stakeholder groups to raise awareness of the positive role of youths and call for inclusive youth representation in all sectors.
R- Rewards Systems
Over the years, there is the realisation that young people do a lot in building peace within and across their communities yet their efforts often go unnoticed and unrecognized. One of the strategies BBFORPEACE use in mobilizing young people into peace actions and disengaging youths from violent actions is by creating the appropriate stimulation for them. They realise that the lack of recognition of young people’s peacebuilding efforts is one of the challenges hindering young people’s active participation in peacebuilding. Thus, in 2018, the organisation launched the Nigeria Youth4Peace Awards, which is an annual event designed to reward, celebrate, and showcase young people who are making exceptional contributions to preventing and countering violent extremism, conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and sustainable development in Nigeria.
They also organise the annual Youth4Peace Forum, which brings together young people and other actors working across different peacebuilding fields to come together to share experiences, lessons learnt from their work, their challenges, as well as their best practices that others can adapt. This reward system thus serves as an inspiration and motivation to young people letting them know that their efforts at building peace in their communities is actually being noticed and valued.
E- Empowerment, Humanitarian Assistance and Social Entrepreneurship
BBFORPEACE acknowledges that socio-economic factors such as poverty, unemployment, and the lack of sustainable sources of livelihood represents some of the motivating factors driving young people to engage in violent extremist activities. Thus, they provide some form of skill acquisition training for young people and also offer micro grants for them to start up businesses to keep them busy and engaged.
The organisation also offer humanitarian services to vulnerable populations because of the belief that you cannot preach peace to people on an empty stomach. Thus, they provide emergency relief, and need-based humanitarian aids to ensure that the basic needs of these vulnerable people are met.
Recommendations for Best Practices
Some of the best practices that has been learnt from the peacebuilding work of the Building Blocks for Peace Foundation include the fact that:
- We must strengthen the capacity of youth-led organisations to build the resilience of other youths and YPS stakeholders. There is the need to create and foster collaborative relationship and partnership between youth groups and the government and other YPS actors.
- Often times, government, donor organisations, and other stakeholders come up with their own assumptions on what they think motivate young people to engage in violent extremist activities and thus conduct their interventions based on such perceived assumptions. This to a large extent makes such interventions largely unsustainable. One thing we have learnt working with youth groups is that it important for interventions to be based on direct consultations with youths working on the ground.
- It is also important to engage with the many faces of young people because the perspective of one young person will not the tell the story of the entire youth group. Also, there is no one-sized solution to the challenges faced by young people because they have different experience based on their background and context. Hence, it is imperative to listen to them and hear directly from them, both online and offline.
- Young people should also be given ownership of the entirety of the project cycle, from policy formulation, design, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and review.
Conclusion
There are lots of policy frameworks both at the global, regional, and national level geared towards enhancing young people’s role in preventing and countering violent extremism, as well as in peacebuilding and promoting sustainable development. What is needed now is not more policies but rather for governments and other stakeholders to work towards translating these policy frameworks into actions especially at the grassroots level. For instance, since the adoption of UNSCR 2250 in 2015, the countries that have developed a national action plan based on this resolution are not even up to five.
Lasting solutions to preventing and countering violent extremism lies with working directly with young people and actively engaging them in all stages of the project cycle. They must be seen as equal partners in development rather than as perpetrators of violence or as problems that need to be solved. Finally, the government must learn to work hand-in-hand with CSOs and NGOs working on youth issues and not see them as threats to the work that they do because these groups have close connections with youth group and also have the trust of the people.
References
Lawal, R.A., and Patrick, M. 2020. Building Blocks for Peace “Care” Model: A Sustainable Framework for the Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda. In R.A. Lawal, A.O. Akhigbe., and E.S. Effevottu. Eds. Connecting and amplifying voices of youths building peace in Nigeria (pp.26-42). Ibadan, Nigeria: Building Blocks for Peace Foundation. Available at: https://bbforpeace.org/publication/Connecting%20and%20Amplifying%20Voices%20of%20Youth%20Building%20Peace%20in%20Nigeria.pdf