Pakistan Observer
Published Date: Oct 1, 2012
TAPPING YOUTH?S POTENTIAL AS PEACE LEADERS
Youth can play a crucial role in positively transforming conflict situations and contribute in building peaceful societies. This was the crux of a workshop on peace building for youth, jointly organized by Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Pakistan, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and DANIDA International.
Acknowledging youth as agent of peace, the speakers at the workshop emphasized upon involving and partnering with young people for positive change, rather than considering them as a problem, aggressors or victim during the conflicts. We must capitalize on youth potential who can serve as powerful drivers of political, social and economic transformation, they added.
Titled “Young Leaders For Peace”, the 5-day training workshop held in Islamabad on 26-30 September 2012, provided an opportunity to young community leaders coming from 25 districts of Pakistan, to discuss, understand and reflect upon the issues of extremism, conflicts, intolerance and peace building in Pakistan. The topics treated in the workshop include, leadership styles and competencies, concepts of conflict & peace, conflict mapping and actor analysis, transformation strategies, connectors and dividers of peace, cooperative problem solving, consensus Building and common ground approach among many other.
Speaking at the concluding session, Ammara Durrani, Country Director, SFCG Pakistan highlighted the importance of dialogue: “Every positive social change depends upon our dialogue with self and with each other. Dialogue based on respect and reconciliation and is the most effective to transform and resolve conflict.”
“Peace is all about understanding each other’s perceptions and one of the purpose of this training was to build synergies and understand each other’s perceptions,” concluded Dr. Abid Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI.