Virtual Closed-Door Workshop and Call for Contribution – “SPECIAL PEACE AND SECURITY REPORT: REFUGEES AND INCLUSIVE PEACE”

5 April, 2023

The Case of South Sudanese Refugee Youths and the Peace Process “Back Home”

Background

Empirical evidence proves that the more inclusive a peace/transition process is, the more likely it is to succeed and the more stable that society will likely be. Despite proof that refugee and youth inclusion in peace processes as well as mitigating their exclusion and its impacts are crucial to sustainable peace, refugee youths are more often than not left out of the peace process in their home country. This not only deprives these young refugees the opportunity to be heard, but it also risk depriving the process and its outcome ownership by a significant fraction of those it was meant for and legitimacy which will prove crucial to its sustainability: bearing in mind the degree and dynamics of the negative impact of the breakdown of peace on their lives and livelihood. This speaks directly to sustainable peace, and it brings to bear South Sudan’s peace/transition process as the level of meaningful participation of South Sudanese refugee youths is a genuine point of concern.

Observing the degree of absence of young refugees in the transition process of their home countries, the Research and Policy Analysis Unit of the Africa Peace and Security Programme (APSP) of the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa, contends the need to:

  1. Examine the (ex)inclusion of young refugees from South Sudan in the context of the peace/transition processes of their home country.
  2. Explore findings from (1) above within the broader youth, peace and security debate and extract policy implications/recommendations.

The Virtual Event

The Unit will be hosting a two hours thirty minutes workshop for a discussion on:

  1. Understanding the South Sudanese context.
  2. State of policy and academic literature on Young Refugees and Inclusive Peace
  3. Methodology discourse.
  4. Students’ contributions.

Invitation

The Unit therefore invites M.Sc./M.A. and Ph.D. students who are nationalities of Ethiopia and South Sudan to:

  1. Submit a CV and Cover Letter to j.akamo@ipss-addis.org (with the subject line “Refugees and Inclusive Peace”) and keep tsedeneya.m@ipss-addis.org in copy to express their interest to participate in a closed-door discussion on the subject matter. Upon acceptance a registration link will be sent. It will be a virtual event and Chatham House rules apply – the meeting will be recorded for the Unit’s internal use only.
    • Event Date: Tuesday, 2 May 2023.
    • Time: 10 AM to 12 NOON East African Time.

2. Submit an abstract of 200 words (inclusive of methodology) if they are willing to present their findings from an ongoing or concluded research and contribute to the report. Students whose abstracts were accepted will be given time to present and get feedback on their work.

Deadline for all submissions is Tuesday 25 April 2023.

For enquiries, send an email to j.akamo@ipss-addis.org with the subject line “Refugees and Inclusive Peace”.