LocationsUNDP’s journey and the road ahead
Ten years of Youth, Peace and Security
December 10, 2025
Nearly half of young people live in conflict-affected countries, and most are in less developed regions, facing compounded challenges from climate hazards and insecurity.
Photo: UNDP Lebanon
Ten years ago, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2250, a landmark decision that recognized young people as essential partners in building peace and preventing conflict.
The resolution launched the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda, a global framework that places youth at the center of efforts to create inclusive, resilient societies and protect young people’s rights.
UNDP’s role in advancing the YPS agenda
Over the last decade, UNDP has championed youth leadership, inclusion and innovation in peacebuilding worldwide, as well as advocating for inclusive policies and frameworks.
UNDP has assisted countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia and Honduras in developing and operationalizing YPS national and local action plans, ensuring that the global agenda translates into meaningful realities.
In 2022, UNDP partnered with the African Union for the first continent-wide dialogue on YPS, resulting in the Bujumbura Declaration on YPS in Africa.
Investing in movements and capacity, UNDP advanced youth participation in peacebuilding through targeted capacity building initiatives, like the Colombian Youth Leading Change for Peace project which trained youth organizations, public servants and youth advisors in risk and conflict management, human rights and gender-based violence prevention.
UNDP has supported youth-led coalitions and networks, such as the YPS coalition established in Kenya.
UNDP leverages creative strategies, including arts and sports, to dismantle social and political barriers and to spread positive narratives. In 2021, UNDP, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration, organized the Grand Trail de la Jeunesse pour la Paix, a relay race that drew over 1,500 young runners across Mali, turning sport into a powerful tool for reconciliation and inclusion.
In terms of digital innovation and building digital resilience, UNDP has expanded youth civic engagement through platforms like iParticipate, using digital tools to foster dialogue and inclusive participation, with pilots in Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar and Fiji.
Digital spaces can enable participation but are vulnerable to misinformation, disinformation and hate speech. UNDP’s civic tech initiatives help youth design tools for inclusive governance and to counter polarization. In Asia-Pacific UNDP’s Civic Tech Innovation Challenge has supported youth-led startups developing digital tools for inclusive governance.
Building and sharing knowledge on YPS is crucial to empower young people and practitioners with practical tools and facilitate the replication of successful approaches across regions.
As an active member of the Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security, UNDP has produced or contributed to key resources like Youth, Peace and Security: A Programming Handbook, and Fostering Youth-Inclusive Political Processes.
UNDP has also elevated youth voices at global platforms such as the ECOSOC Youth Forum and the Summit of the Future, advancing meaningful youth participation in intergovernmental processes.
UNDP with IOM, organized the Grand Trail de la Jeunesse pour la Paix, a relay race that attracted over 1,500 young runners across Mali.
Photo: UNDP Mali
Connecting youth, with climate, peace and security
Nearly half of youth live in conflict-affected countries, and most are in less developed regions, facing compounded challenges from climate hazards and insecurity. Recognizing the need for collaborative solutions, UNDP played a pivotal role in launching and empowering Generation Nexus: Eurasian Youth Network for Climate, Peace and Security. This brings together delegates from 19 countries across Europe and Central Asia, connecting young people from diverse backgrounds and empowering them to work together on advancing climate action, peacebuilding and social cohesion.
UNDP produced Beyond Vulnerability: A Guidance Note on Youth, Climate, Peace & Security with the Swedish Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, bridging the CPS and YPS agendas, and offering programming considerations for youth-led mitigation, adaptation and peacebuilding.
Through the Youth4Climate initiative, UNDP supports youth-led solutions at the climate-peace-security intersection, funding innovative projects that combine climate resilience with peacebuilding and social cohesion.
What works
Go beyond consultation and share power with young people. Youth should have genuine decision-making power, with budgets, voting rights, and accountability mechanisms. Sustained and continuous engagement ensures policies reflect young people’s realities, builds trust, and leads to stronger peacebuilding outcomes.
Global frameworks fail if they ignore local realities. Anchor YPS within local and community structures, like schools, universities, local committees and youth councils ensure long-term sustainability. Locally-led approaches produce culturally relevant solutions that truly address youth and community needs.
Youth are not a monolith. Policies and programmes must be intersectional, addressing layered vulnerabilities and amplifying voices of those most marginalized or underrepresented, otherwise, YPS risks reinforcing the very inequalities it seeks to dismantle.
Peacebuilding cannot remain the domain of governments only. We need to diversify partnerships and bring in universities as incubators of dialogue, private sector as engines of resources, and tech innovators as accelerators of scale. If we’re not leveraging these ecosystems, we’re leaving transformative potential on the table.
The YPS agenda is more than a policy, it’s a call to action at a time when it’s needed most. After a decade of commitments, the focus must shift decisively to implementation and impact.
UNDP stands committed to partnering with young women and men to drive real change through innovation, inclusion, and agency, because the time for action is now.
Our goal is to ensure every young person has a stake in peacebuilding, leaving no one behind.
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