Mediothek Afghanistan in Nangarhar organized a one-day youth dialogue forum on 11.02.2021 in the provincial capital, Jalalabad. More than 50 participants, both young men and women, representatives of local government departments, young peace makers, and leaders of youth groups, university and members of Mediothek Youth Network participated in the event. The event entailed three major parts, introduction and orientation, teamwork and discussion among participants moderated by an experts and lastly sharing of result of group work and father discussions and dialogue.
“The role of Afghan youth is of tremendous importance for any sustainable peace in our country,” says Mohammad Dawoud Wafa, Mediothek Nangarhat coordinator of Mediothek in Nangarhar, “however their there are challenges ahead of young people in Afghanistan and this one day dialogue and the project provides and chance to discus and analyze those challenges.”
Director of the provincial depart of affairs of the Deputy Ministry of Youth Affairs also spoke to the participants. “Youth in Afghanistan makes up about 70 percent of the total population and given their sheer number, their role cannot be ignored especially in peacebuilding, development and national unity,” said the Said Ikran Adel, the director of the provincial youth affairs department.
“This event provided a very unique chance for a very large number of young people to come together and discuss very importance issue,” says Abdull Basir Toralia, a young participant “youth mobilization is key to engaging them in peacebuilding and political processes.”
The “Youth as Multipliers for Peace – Mobilization For and Participation in the Peace Process in Afghan Provinces” project began in 2020 with an advanced ToT workshop in Kabul followed by two rounds of local or district level workshops and discussion fora in 2020 across a dozen provinces aiming to develop common views and perspectives of young people on a peaceful future and collecting views about strengthening the peace process by directing engaging with more than several hundred young leaders across the target provinces. The current provincial dialogue forms are organized across 10 provinces throughout the country. The project will proceed with a workshop of facilitators with the State Ministry for Peace in Kabul, a national conference on “Youth and Peace” in Kabul with the participation of youth representatives from across ten target provinces, workshops and dialogue forums in a dozen provinces during this year and presentation of youth perspectives on the peace process to the Afghan government, UNAMA, EU representation and the German Embassy in Kabul in writing and through meetings and forums.
Shatesta Pakhtoon, a female participant says “we worked more than eight hours among ourselves and discussed so many important issues, but still there are so many issues left that we need a week long program to every and discus all the challenges we as young people face.”
Under the supervision of the moderator, in the second part of the dialogue form-Khost, participants continued working through different working groups to discuss and analyze the challenges, opportunities and solutions that are available to youth. Each working group presented the results of their group work and a resolution was developed for further discussion and analysis. Participants also answered a questionnaire about peacebuilding, youth role in peacebuilding and challenges ahead.
The provincial dialogue forum is part of the project “Youth as Multipliers for Peace – Mobilization for and Participation in the Peace Process in Afghan Provinces”, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
