Youth, peace & security: gender matters in Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

ABSTRACT Youth have long been involved in informal peacebuilding, and the United Nations’ recent adoption of the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) Agenda makes space for more formal involvement. These policy developments echo scholarship highlighting gender as crucial to understanding the roles and experiences of young people across a range of conflict-affected settings. This understanding is necessary to ensuring gender-equitable youth peacebuilding efforts. Yet much remains to be done in theory, policy, and practice to pursue these ends. This work will necessarily involve considering the diverse roles gender may play in young people’s everyday experiences of peacebuilding across a range of settings. The majority of the world’s young people reside in Asia and the Pacific. Yet, more research on YPS is needed in the region, particularly when it comes to accounting for gender. Reflecting on existing research, this article considers learnings to date and seeks to develop a future research agenda.