The Peace Makers ‘Youth Platform’ was launched in October 2022 with the following objectives:
- providing Libya’s youth, across the country, with a safe platform for collective discussions and debates;
- raising young individuals’ level of awareness on general political and policy issues;
- building a bridge and kick-starting a dialogue between youth leaders and high-level experts and decision-makers;
- building a sustainable network of active, influential youth across the country that can play a future role in policy discussions and mediation initiatives.
From March 2023 onwards, significant emphasis has been placed on reinforcing the links between the Peace Makers team and the youth leaders across the country and creating a sustainable infrastructure to facilitate future dialogue:
- To the extent possible, in-presence meetings in the team’s office in Tripoli were privileged to online meetings.
- Direct outreach meetings were organised with civil society organisations, student unions, youth members of political parties and Libya’s Youth Parliament. These efforts have aimed at increasing the visibility of the initiative and ensuring its inclusivity, building trust with youth organisations and creating partnerships.
- The Youth Platform team has also increased its reach through the “Peace Maker Talk” podcast series (7 episodes published so far), an educational campaign focusing on issues key to Libya’s future and directed at young people from across the country.
In 2023, the network included 400+ members from more than 60 different localities across the country.
During the second part of 2023, the Youth Platform maintained its focus on issues related to the future of the economy and youth’s visions and expectations. The nexus between the future of Libya’s economy, local governance, and the climate crisis and energy transition had been identified by the project team and the youth participants as a priority for discussions.
In 2024, the World Bank, in partnership with the Mediterranean Platform, launched the “Youth Economic Research Forum.” Building on years of experience in youth engagement and dialogue, this project further amplifies the platform’s influence on the country’s youth development.
Central to the Mediterranean Platform’s mission, the Youth Platform continues to drive new projects at both the national (Libya) and regional (MENA) levels. As we believe the future of the region lies in the hands of its youth, the platform’s objectives and values are more necessary than ever.
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This initiative is funded by the European Union in the framework of “The Dialogue Platform for Libya’s Future” project (FPI / 2022/433-693). Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.