Mediothek Afghanistan organized a one-day dialogue forum in Laghman provincial capital on 13.02.2021. More than 60 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.
Nasima Shafiq Sadat, Director of Women’s Affairs, Mohibullah Mohib, Director of National Radio and Television, and Fazlur Rehman Payam, Director of provincial department of the Deputy Ministry of Youth Affairs spoke to the youth participants in the opening segment of the event, saying that such programs are important for peacebuilding, promoting youth’s role and participating in peacebuilding, unity and exchange of views. They thanked the young participants for taking the first step by participating in the dialogue and asked them to play a constructive role in building peace and unity in order and work together to save their communities from the current ills.
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.
The dialogue was moderated by two peace experts, Mohammad Sadiq Sarwan and Ahmad Shah Mangal helping negate the discussion and connect the dots between topics discussed and issues raised.
Under the supervision of the moderator, in the second part of the dialogue form-Laghman, 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.
