Youth and Social Cohesion: Learning from Regional Grassroot-level Practices

Author: Ashwini Kumar Dhakal

Photo by: Centre for Social Change (CSC)

Youth, defined as individuals between the ages of 15 and 24, constitute a significant portion of South Asia’s population. Their potential to influence and shape the future of their respective nations makes them crucial players in the quest for social cohesion and peacebuilding. Various organizations are thus actively engaged in empowering and capacitating their roles and engagement across the globe. Such initiatives have not only created platforms, safe spaces, and opportunities for meaningful youth engagement in social, political, and economic processes but also have contributed to strengthening social cohesion and peacebuilding in community.

Creating Safe Spaces and Community Hub

Safe spaces and community hubs often provide a neutral ground where young people from diverse backgrounds can interact and collaborate. Referring to the case of Sri Lanka, nearly 25% of the country’s population comprises of youths, which is pivotal for positive transformation. Making efforts, Asia Lanka Social Development Cooperation (ALSDC), also known as MasterPeace Sri-Lanka as a licensed club, has built two Centers for Community Education and Pluralism (CCEP). They recognize language as a dividing factor in society, hence they facilitate language training to bring children and youths together, foster new relationships, and develop pluralism skills to live together in a multicultural society.

Furthermore, the centers aim to create trustworthy neighbors by facilitating workshops, training, interactive community dialogues, movie screenings, community volunteer exchanges, and interreligious dialogues. So far, this approach has directly benefitted one hundred children and youths and 1240 community members.

These centers also offer a physical space for interaction and help build trust. Such spaces and community centers promote mental well-being and social cohesion by providing resources such as counseling, mentorship, and recreational facilities.

Building Resilient Community Youth Groups

Building Resilient Youth-led Actions for Violent Extremism (BRAVE) is another youth focused initiative where youth come together to design and implement creative youth-led interventions to promote social cohesions in their respective divisions. This includes, but is not limited to, community dialogues, shared religious festivals, street dramas, movies and dialogue, and art campaigns.

In Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, youth groups are instrumental in disaster response and recovery efforts. Such initiatives are often led by non-profit organizations and are often voluntary, which highlights their resilience and dedication to the community. Adding to it, these BRAVE groups of youths are capacitated on conflict management and PVE mechanisms and are trained to engage local and government authorities to integrate voices from the community into policy formulations. The project capacitated four groups of thirty young activists directly and six thousand communities indirectly.

Empowering Digital Skills and Utilizing Digital Space

In the digital age, empowering youth with digital skills and utilizing digital spaces is crucial for building a solid foundation for social cohesion. Digital spaces such as social media platforms and online forums significantly connect youth across geographical boundaries. In Sri Lanka, the CCEPs are mobilized and strengthened to be able to conduct intensive training and foster digital literacy among youths and women. As the use of religious belief to create disputes amongst the public for political motives, especially during elections, is prevalent in the country, the project emphasizes providing youths and women with extensive digital literacy training. Through this, the participants are educated on 3 different topics: 1. how to curb online hate speech, 2. understand the concept of mis/disinformation and how it helps to create socio-political propaganda, and 3. how to use online space and social media efficiently to alienate religion and ethnic identities to impact the election and its political outcomes. For tangible and intangible outcomes, the trained youths will launch a massive social media campaign targeting the elections on the theme “Love All, Hate None,” aiming for a total outreach of one million. The project incorporates ‘Train the Trainers (ToT)’ approach to expand education to larger community groups. By leveraging digital media’s power, young people can amplify their voices, advocate for change, and build inclusive digital communities.

Community Peace Walk

Master Peace Walk is one of the flagship programs in Nepal led by Peace for People, also known as MasterPeace Nepal, a licensed club. The 4th MasterPeace Walk saw 35 participants, consisting of Dutch, South African, Columbian, Portuguese, French, Polish, and Nepali (17 international and 18 Nepalese) people, set out for the six-day trial on 2 November. The project aims to help with the following:

  1. Building a Bridge between Cultures and Capacity: It connects grassroots communities with global networks and fosters their knowledge and exposure.
  2. Platform for Youth Opportunities: The participants in the walk are highly skilled personalities from diverse fields. Through the conversion and friendships, the Nepalese youth benefit from different scholarships, foreign university recommendations, direct support, and many opportunities for their further studies. In addition, the local community got jobs throughout the project.
  3. Promoting Diversity: With its distinctive framework, the MasterPeace Walk has established itself as a tried-and-true method for bringing together many cultures and fostering new synergies and viewpoints.
The above initiatives are some of the examples from South Asia, which are creating a durable foundation for youth involvement in harmonizing social cohesion and peacebuilding. The region’s recent political and social developments also underscore the alarming situation for national unity and social cohesion, thus demanding synergized efforts from all stakeholders to engage youth and mobilize their talents in building a sustainable and harmonious society.

About the Author

Ashwini Kumar Dhakal

Mr. Ashwini Kumar Dhakal is a Master’s Graduate in International Studies from Chung-Ang University, South Korea. He is keen to conduct research in global affairs, geopolitics, foreign policy, development economics and peacebuilding.