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‘If not youth, who? If not now, when?’

A decade of the Youth, Peace and Security agenda

September 18^th, 2025

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Half of the people on our planet are 30 or younger—the biggest, most educated, connected and diverse youth generation we’ve ever seen.

Despite their numbers and potential, young people around the world continue to face systemic barriers to meaningful participation in decisions that affect their lives.

Changing this is not only a matter of rights—it’s, fundamentally, a global strategy. Because when empowered, young people consistently demonstrate the vision, leadership and resilience needed to prevent conflict, strengthen social cohesion and build a more peaceful, just and sustainable future for all.

Achieving this requires structural change that gives young people a genuine voice in political decisions. With such a large youth population, inclusive decision-making isn’t just fair—it’s smarter, as it better reflects the needs and priorities of society as a whole.

Recognizing this potential, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) in 2015. It marked a historic shift: for the first time, the international community formally acknowledged that youth are essential partners in building and sustaining peace and security.

The resolution laid out five core pillars. It called for meaningful youth participation in decision-making, stronger protection of their rights and a greater focus on the prevention of the root causes of conflict. It also emphasized the need for partnerships across generations and sectors, and for support to help young people involved in or vulnerable to violence disengage and reintegrate into society.

Now, a decade later, and in the context of rising geopolitical tensions, widening inequalities and the growing impacts of the climate crisis, the urgency to advance the YPS agenda has never been more clear. This critical moment also gains significance as the world marks the International Year of Peace and Trust in 2025.

Some efforts are already delivering tangible results on the ground. In Colombia, for instance, young Indigenous, Afro-descendant, peasant and urban leaders from Northern Cauca, a region historically marked by interethnic land conflicts, have spent nearly a decade building a shared political, social and community agenda. Through this process, they’ve strengthened local peacebuilding efforts, and developed leadership and public management skills.

Since 2022, with support from UNDP’s Corredores de Paz (peace corridors) programme and funding from the Embassy of Sweden, their work has begun to bear fruit: seven of their proposals have been included in the Cauca Development Plan, and several young leaders have been elected as municipal councilors.

Youth facilitator Karen Santamaría reflects on this progress:

"Our initiatives have the power to transform our territories. We can be part of decision-making."

She describes this as a double impact: "personal growth as young people and the realization that we can create meaningful change in our communities".

Photo: UNDP Colombia/David Baracaldo Orjuela

In fragile and crisis-affected contexts, opportunities become more limited. It’s estimated that 47 percent of youth aged 18 to 29 live in countries facing extreme or high levels of conflict, where a range of difficulties, including forced displacement and poor institutional support, restrict their access to education, economic opportunities and political processes.

In regions such as the Middle East and North Africa, a child is displaced, injured or killed every five seconds due to conflict—an alarming reality that not only endangers their immediate safety but also undermines their long-term potential as peacebuilders.

Beyond conflict zones, various forms of violence, discrimination and online hate also act as major barriers to youth engagement in society. A UNDP survey of over 1,000 young people across 65 countries revealed that 82 percent of respondents felt electoral violence hindered their ability to vote. Similarly, Amnesty International reports that three out of five young activists globally face online harassment for posting human rights content.

This stark reality highlights the urgent need to advance the YPS agenda, which offers a crucial framework for meaningful youth engagement in democratic processes.

A powerful example of this is seen in Timor-Leste, where Youth Conversations: Dada-lia ho Foin-sa'e sira, a youth-led podcast, has been amplifying young voices, boosting civic participation and bridging the rural-urban divide.

"I can become a role model in my country, showing communities that our future lies in the hands of youth," says podcast participant Nolasco Viegas Torrezão.

The UNDP project is also expanding to countries such as Bhutan and Pakistan, furthering its impact across diverse contexts.

Further, the effects of climate change on peace and security are increasingly shaping young people’s realities. Particularly in fragile contexts, droughts, floods and resource scarcities disrupt livelihoods, which may fuel grievances that can deepen youth marginalization and even escalate into conflict. With limited options, some young people may become vulnerable to exploitation by extremist groups who offer alternative services and a sense of purpose and belonging in exchange for loyalty.

At the same time, many young people are leading initiatives to address climate-related risks and conducting youth-led resilience and peacebuilding interventions.

To bolster these efforts, UNDP is supporting youth with practical skills that can ignite social change, build resilience and nurture hope. The North West Climate-Peace Hubs initiative in Nigeria, supported by the Government of Norway, is one such effort.

It has trained 150 young people to install and maintain solar energy systems, work that tackles energy poverty and environmental degradation while providing stable, meaningful jobs that serve as alternatives to joining violent groups.

One participant, Abubakar Danladi, shares how the training is creating a ripple effect:

"We’re already planning to train others and expand the knowledge we’ve gained."

UNDP is committed to youth empowerment. It helps countries develop and implement national action plans and supported the process that led to the adoption of the Bujumbura Declaration, a milestone for the YPS agenda across Africa. In Europe and Central Asia, UNDP partners with national governments on initiatives such as Generation Nexus, to drive action on the intersection between youth, peace and security, and climate change.

In addition to its work on YPS, UNDP also focuses on broader initiatives to increase young people's engagement in development. For example, it creates guidelines to help practitioners meaningfully include youth in climate action. It also works with the private sector, such as partnering with Samsung on Generation 17, an initiative to amplify youth leadership in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

There is still much work to be done to realize the vision set out in the UN Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda and the Pact for the Future, which put youth at the heart of a renewed multilateralism. Today, over 260 million young people lack access to education, employment or training. Two thirds of them are women. Unlocking their potential is essential to support social and economic integration, to prevent marginalization and to build lasting peace. As the podcaster Nolasco says: