Despite the adoption in 2015 of the UN’s Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) agenda, which recognizes the fundamental role of youth as a positive force in preventing and resolving conflict as well as building sustainable peace, Syrian youth today, after 10 years of conflict, are largely absent from formal political processes and peace negotiations. Yet at the same time, youth are involved in a host of bottom-up peacebuilding efforts and community development activities to provide basic services and humanitarian aid – all of which contribute to micro-level peacebuilding and reconciliation. Yet, the sustainability of their engagement is far from certain, depending at least in part on security issues but also their own livelihood needs, both of which can negatively impact youth participation in grassroots action. Moreover, research has revealed that for many Syrian youth, there is a distinct perception of the lost political agency after 10 years of conflict, as well as an understanding of peacebuilding as largely limited to formal negotiation processes only.

All of this has important implications for the implementation of an effective and youth-owned YPS agenda in Syria. To put forth meaningful youth inclusion in peacebuilding in Syria, it is necessary to understand what “peace” and “participation” actually mean to them and what they look like in practice. Drawing on the existing actions of youth to counter conflict, build everyday peace, and rebuild coexistence may be one important step in developing a YPS agenda in Syria that is able to respond both to youth ideas regarding peace and security, but also to ensure that actions are imbued with a sense of agency.