The Global Partnership for Children and Youth in Peacebuilding, launched in 2012, seeks to improve child and youth peacebuilding (CYP) practices, and to impact and strengthen the evidence base supporting CYP and related best practices. In July 2014, the Global Partnership initiated a multi-agency, multi-country, multi-donor (3M) evaluation in Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nepal to 1) Map who is doing what and where to support CYP, 2) Nurture durable partnerships increasing CYP quantity, quality, and impact 3) With children and youth, assess the quality and impact of child and youth participation in peacebuilding and variables influencing CYP impact; 4) Build the capacity of children and youth to meaningfully participate in CYP evaluations; and 5) Present key findings and recommendations to stakeholders to help increase the quantity, quality and impact of CYP work.
Conclusions
Children, youth and adult supporters in Colombia, DRC and Nepal have played active and meaningful roles as evaluators and analysts in the 3M evaluation. Their commitment and dedication contributed to the success of the evaluation, to the richness of the data collected, to the analysis, and to the significance and associated meanings of the themes that were identified. Other agencies and institutions are encouraged to support participatory research and evaluations involving children and youth, and to build upon lessons learned. Evaluations should ensure that participatory evaluations are planned with sufficient attention to: time availability of children and youth; capacity building and mentoring; ethical issues including payment and appreciation of LET members; adequate allocation of budget and materials to Local Evaluation Teams; and use of creative and simple participatory evaluation tools, particularly with younger children.
Efforts to map who is doing what and where, were less successful due to technical challenges and delays in the online mapping platform. However, this platform is now available, and readers are encouraged to share and use the mapping platform at www.GPCYP.com/map to contribute data concerning the quantity and quality of CYP work completed at different times in different locations. From this evaluation clear findings have been presented regarding the quality and impact of CYP, and variables and circumstances influencing the impact. Partnerships have also been nurtured and collaborative efforts are underway to act upon the evaluation findings at different levels.
Ongoing and increased efforts are needed to share information about peacebuilding, human rights, and good governance with more children and youth. Furthermore, child and youth peacebuilders need to make increased efforts to ensure gender sensitivity and meaningful engagement of the most marginalised children and youth in their peacebuilding initiatives and organisations. Inclusive approaches are crucial to ensuring children and youth most affected by injustice and violence, have positive channels to defend their rights to protection, justice, and social change. Young peacebuilders are asserting their rights to participation in all governance processes concerning them at all levels, including peace processes. It is crucial that the authorities and adults in different settings recognise and embrace child and youth peacebuilders as genuine partners, so that the impact of their innovations and commitment can have wider impact and contribute to more sustainable peace.