Rationale
The challenge of building sustainable peace and security in rural communities in Nigeria has yet to fully embrace the skills and capacities of young men and women to inform such processes at formal levels.
Much of the contributions made so far to support the peace and security agenda to date are evident at informal and community levels, where the efforts remain largely undocumented, and often have limited influence on mainstream policy decisions on peace and security.
Bridging the gap between the contributions of young men and women at informal levels on the one hand, and their effective participation and influence over formal processes of peacemaking on the other, remains an outstanding challenge.
To date, no institution exists in Ebe and adjoining communities with a specific mandate and dedicated resources to strengthen the technical skills of the youth to better influence and inform processes for negotiating peace, and/or for shaping the policy-based research agenda on issues of community peace and security.
Mainstream organizations working on the agenda of peace and security often adopt a “project-based approach” to supporting peace and security agenda, such that institutionalization of this work remains weak.