Mediothek Afghanistan organized a day-long workshop of peace facilitators with the State Ministry for Peace on 23.02.201 in Kabul. As a major activity of the project “Youth as Multipliers for Peace: Mobilization for and Participation in the Peace Process in Provinces”, the workshop with the ministry brought together more than 30 young peace facilitators and peace multipliers from across ten target provinces of the project and young peace makers from Kabul to meet with Ministry’s leadership and discuss the peace process from the ministry’s point of view and share their own experiences and lesson learnt during the project so far with the leadership of the ministry.
Previous activities of the project including an advanced training of trainers workshop in Kabul for young peace activists, both men and women, provided advanced training in peace facilitation techniques, political mobilization, especially through social media, and negotiation skills.
Knowledge and know-how gained during the ToT was disseminated through local and district level workshop by the young trainers. While a series of dialogue forums in provincial capitals across the provinces provided an opportunity for the young multipliers to engage in political processes through exchanges with each other and with political decision-makers at provincial, national levels. And the current workshop provided a unique chance for the 30 young participants and main actors in the project to gain in-depth information from the State Ministry for Peace about the track-1 process and its challenges and developments and exchange ideas with experts on process design, participation and mobilization in the context of the peace process.
The workshop was attended by Dr. Alema, deputy Minister of Human Rights and Civil Society of the State Ministry for Peace and current acting Minister, Ms. Leila Jafari, Head of Political Organizations and Civil Society Institutions of the Ministry, senior experts and officials of the
Ministry and young facilitators from ten provinces.
The event formally launched with an opening remark by Farah Mustafavi, Mediothek Cultural Affairs Coordinator, shedding light on the activities of the project so far and the importance of working and engaging with young people for peacebuilding in the country. She expressed gratitude for the opportunity provided by the leadership of Ministry to the young participants.
The session ended with an open discussion and Q&A among the attendees and representatives of the ministry.
Leila Jafari, Head of Political Organizations and Civil Society Institutions of the Ministry, explained through a PowerPoint presentation how the ministry is working on the peace process, what are the challenges and developments. However the main information the track-1 process came from the remark and presentation of the Deputy Ministry Dr. Alema, who stayed most of the day with the participants.
The event continued with group-work, open discussion and question and answer with ministry’s experts on the current process of peace.
Participants, the young peace facilitators, from ten province worked among themselves paling for their future mission as they prepare to return to their provinces to continue on the path of peacebuilding through constructive participation, dialogue, education and youth leadership. The event was organized in collaboration with State Ministry for Peace and the project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
