Mediothek Afghanistan organized a one-day youth dialogue forum on 13.02.2021 in the provincial capital of Takhar province. About 80 young participants of different backgrounds, both young men and women, representatives of local government departments, young peace makers, and leaders of youth groups, university students, members of civil society organizations and members of Mediothek Youth Network participated in the event.
Tariq Azimi, head of the provincial department of information and culture, Hekmatullah Hamidi, head youth affairs depart, Ramadan Bator, head of Birlik Radio and Television, Arian Ruyin, head of Afghanistan Elite Cohesion Organization and representative of the department of economy and youth rights advocates were also among the guests in the first part of the event.
The project “Youth as Multipliers for Peace – Mobilization For and Participation in the Peace Process in Afghan Provinces” 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 directly 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.
Under the supervision of the moderator, in the second part of the dialogue form-Takhar, 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.
