As part of the Educational Planet 2025 Festival, a joint initiative of the Educational Planet Institute and UNESCO to celebrate International Education Day, the session The Ripple Effect: Youth Driving Positive Peace Across Intersections brought together young peacebuilders, educators and community leaders from diverse backgrounds. This 100 % youth event, organized with and by young people, showcases inspiring on-the-ground efforts and celebrates the diverse contributions of young people around the world.
Peacebuilding is not only about resolving conflicts, but also about creating prosperous and resilient communities. - Elizabeth Chukwu, co-author and session moderator, LearningPlanet Peaceful Futures Ambassador
A call for change and commitment
Felipe Gobatto Scheibler, coordinator of policy and research at the International Humanitarian Law Clinic of the Federal University of Brazil, stresses that peace is not simply the absence of war, but the presence of justice, security and opportunity.
Brazil is a country that, officially speaking, has been “at peace” for decades. We have not been involved in armed conflicts in the usual sense. However, we did emerge from a military dictatorship a few decades ago, which could be considered prolonged armed violence.. We are also faced with serious problems of violence within organized crime, which affect our communities as much as, if not more than, traditional wars.
Liana Liu Ioannides, Cypriot peace activist, reflects on the reality of childhood in a divided society and the impact of failed peace processes on young people's faith in reconciliation.
For me, the most heartbreaking reality is that the Cyprus conflict has been going on for over half a century. We have seen negotiations come close to success and then fail at the last moment, eroding confidence in peace processes”, she explains. “ In conflict-affected societies, it's often young people who resist peace the most, because they've never known what it looks like..
Leanna insists on the need for local and political commitment. “It's very important that we invest in peace education and capacity-building for young people, because they can get involved in any kind of negotiations, any kind of decision-making, but young people must first be able to abandon the hateful narratives they've been taught to hold all their lives
Peace education as a tool for change
Abhishek Vyas, co-chair of the Cambridge Peace Education Research Group, talks about the importance of making peace education more accessible and achievable. “One of the things young people can work on is how to ensure that peace education isn't a cliché, that it isn't regulated by declarations from the UN and other political bodies, over and over again. And how can we make it more effective? - he continues.
Weronika Knowska, who represents the Ambassadors for Peace network, brings a critical grassroots perspective to the conversation, based on her experience of working with refugees and young people affected by conflict. She stresses the need for trauma-informed education and dialogue.
We work with very fragile communities, affected by post-traumatic stress disorder, war and very difficult backgrounds.. So once again, it's about creating an atmosphere of shared humanity, creating courageous spaces - a space where we can share our views, where we can be actively listened to, and where we can simply get to know each other better and see the humanity in man.
Dennis Lallienzuol, founder of the Bridge School Project in Manipur, echoes this concern and stresses the importance of contextualizing peace education. “When we asked 1,000 children directly affected by the conflict with whom we worked,” he reflects, “for them, peace means having the possibility of dreaming and having the hope of not being afraid.”
Dennis describes the approach of his initiative, which includes fostering intergenerational dialogue, incorporating indigenous wisdom and ensuring that children and young people have a voice. “We don't want to adopt the Western concept of peace education, because it's not relevant to us. We have our own ethnic divisions and ethnic complexities. We use storytelling, art and role-playing to help children and young people make sense of peace in their own reality”, he concludes.
Ensuring meaningful participation by young people
A recurring theme in the discussion was the question of symbolic participation. Felipe stressed the need to include young people in official discussions on peace. “There are so many ”youth leadership” programs handing out certificates, but what happens next? Young people take these courses, receive their certificates and wonder what they're going to do next because the job market and decision-making spaces remain closed to them."
Christelle Barakat, a Lebanese peace practitioner, reinforces this idea: “How can we ensure that young people are seen not just as contributors, but as essential architects of lasting peace? We talk a lot about youth inclusion, but we need to do more. It's about ensuring that young people's voices are not just heard, but actually influence decisions.”
With this in mind, Liana stresses the importance of collaboration. “If we want to change the discourse, youth groups need to work together. The peace agenda for youth, women, peace in general and the security agenda are distinct but deeply intertwined. Too often, marginalized groups work in isolation, but the real impact comes when we create synergies between movements.
Dennis calls for systemic reforms: “Peace-building education is not something abstract, it has to be practical and rooted in our daily lives.
Felipe sums up the conversation with an urgent call to action. “We need financial investment in young peacebuilders. If we don't invest in young people who want to work for peace, they will be co-opted by the industries that profit from conflict. The peace sector must be as well financed as the war industry.
A peaceful future driven by young people
The ” Ripple Effect: Youth Driving Positive Peace Across Intersections ”The Learning Planet Festival 2025 highlights the immense potential of youth-led peace-building efforts. It reinforces the fact that young people not only need a seat at the table, but also the tools, resources and systemic support to drive lasting change.
In response to this appeal, the Learning Planet Institute and Global Education Futures are launching a joint initiative - Peaceful Futures: Nurturing the next generation of young peacebuilders. In collaboration with international partners and leading experts, we aim to train and empower young leaders worldwide. Built around the co-design and acceleration of sustainable, scalable peace-building change projects adapted to their local contexts, the program is based on forward-looking strategic thinking, conflict transformation tools and a peace-oriented mindset.
- To find out more about the program, click here
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