The African Network of Young Leaders for Peace and Sustainable Development (ANYL4PSD) is a network of youth peace and Sustainable Development organizations from around Africa. They work with 100 youth organizations over 10 countries, all of which are from private sector, civil society and philanthropic foundations. The network, along with their partners allow young people to integrate in socio-cultural and political life through creative means and actions. In order to achieve a full engagement of young people, the network works on the advancement of education, youth participation and young people’s access to rights, which creates an environment that favorizes youth positive impact on society and the world.

They campaign building peace and sustainable development, and sustainable peace movement that aims at mobilizing African States, the private sector, African artists and leaders, international organizations and actors of regional development, as well as NGOs and grassroots associations. And this is mainly done through promoting African cultural dialogues, as well as strengthening the bond between education and culture. Their network advocates the development of employment-friendly green and blue economies for all, which targets youth, girls and women – a pathway that promotes gender equality among youth.

The network offers a variety of training programs which aims at engaging youth in influencing discussions on peace, security and sustainable development nationally and internationally. This is done through several workshops and forums that enables youth to express their ideas and train them to develop a sense of engagement in youth issues, but also in world issues, including peace, security and sustainable development and how they can make a step to change their own future, by participating in social life.

The African Network of Young Leaders for Peace and Sustainable Development works also closely with young researchers who conduct studies that fills in the gap in peacebuilding and sustainable development throughout a framework that connects academics and policymakers or practitioners. They receive a variety of volunteers from international non-governmental youth organizations, join local organizations, and local volunteers go into existing structures of the former in another country, both intra- and intercontinental.

The main target of the network are children, youth and women, and for that one of their major programs Children4Peace advocates the children’s right and is based on two major factors:

  1. Children in affected or threatened areas are at the center of concerns for peacebuilding, to combat desertification/land degradation, and mitigate the effects of drought and climate change.
  2. Climate change and conflicts are interconnected, and they are both an obstacle to peacebuilding.

And for this, the program promotes youth, women, and children’s engagement throughout promoting children’s rights, youth, children, and women participation along with NGOs and other communities in the elaboration, implementation and monitoring of national and local programs for children rights, combating desertification/land degradation and mitigate the effects of drought and climate change.

Children4Peace was created by Divina Maloum, 15 years old child from Cameroon, in 2014 after she visited northern border with Nigeria, where Boko Haram terrorism has killed more than 27,000 people and displaced two million others. She is one of the winners of the 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize, where the second winner was Greta Thunberg[1]. The Cameroonian teen, Maloum, was rewarded for her efforts in promoting children’s rights by visiting schools to warn students against joining armed groups, such as Boko Haram. Divina Maloum said that “I noticed that the rights of children especially for girls were violated. You see a girl of five years getting married to an old man of 60 years. You see boys, girls who are carriers of bombs (suicide bombers), so I decided to create that association to stimulate the civic and voluntary engagement of children in the fight against violent extremism. To make them be peace builders in their communities. To also make them to be change makers,”[2]

Children for Peace now has a network of 100 children across Cameroon’s ten regions.  She has organized inter-community children’s peace camps, established peace clubs in mosques, and together with other children, issued a children’s declaration against violent extremism.
Source: Voanews

[1] Nzekwe Henry Why This 15-Year-Old African Won The 2019 Children’s Peace Prize Alongside A Nobel Prize Nominee November 22, 2019. Accessible at: https://weetracker.com/2019/11/22/cameroonian-teen-wins-intl-childrens-peace-prize-2019/

[2]  Moki Edwin Kindzeka Cameroon Teen Girl Wins International Children’s Peace Prize

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