Peace Education in Action: Youth-led learning for a peaceful and inclusive world

Event Description

World Scouting, together with Interpeace and participating Big 6 youth organisations, is convening an interactive discussion on how young people learn about peace, conflict, identity, relationships and their own agency — both through formal and non-formal education and through the wider environments in which they grow up.

The session sits at the intersection of SDG 4.7 and the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda, exploring how formal and non-formal learning can strengthen young people’s agency, participation and capacity to contribute to peacebuilding, while also creating space for them to critically engage with the narratives, relationships, institutions and legacies they inherit.

Why This Conversation Matters:
Young people are growing up amid increasing polarisation, conflict, displacement, mis/disinformation and declining trust in institutions. Peace education is therefore not only about preparing young people to build peaceful societies in the future. It is also about enabling them to understand, question and reshape what they inherit, and to participate meaningfully in shaping the societies in which they live.

Youth organisations and non-formal education actors can help bridge this gap through experiential learning, volunteering, dialogue, community action, humanitarian engagement, leadership development and intercultural exchange. The session will use concrete practice from youth organisations and peacebuilding actors as the starting point for a wider conversation about how these approaches can be strengthened, connected and scaled.

Featured Experts Include:
Dylan Winder, IFRC NY Office Lead, Permanent Observer to the UN and Director of Humanitarian Diplomacy
Saji Prelis, Director, Children & Youth Programmes, Search for Common Ground
Graeme Simpson, Director, Interpeace USA
João Armando P. Gonçalves, Chief Education and Development Officer at World Scouting
Luis Chow Gomez, UN Liaison, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict
Laura Robert-Rivera, Young Leader, Girl Scouts of the USA