Search for Common Ground implemented Young WILL from September 2021 to May 2022, with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that empowered young women are collaboratively advocating for same treatment of men and women and promoting social cohesion in their communities.
Context
This project builds Search’s previous work empowering young women in Sri Lanka, including Women in Technology and Young Women as Drivers of Peace, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF), respectively. These projects are part of Search’s ‘Youth 360’ peacebuilding initiative for young women from all ethnic groups, particularly from the volatile North Western and Eastern provinces of the country. The program aims to mobilise and empower young women to play a greater role in peacebuilding within their communities using a 360-approach, meaning a more ‘rounded or holistic’ approach that aimed to put ‘power’ into the hands of the youth themselves to identify the type of change they wanted to see in their communities and to work on initiatives that they designed and selected themselves.
While the Youth 360 activities enabled the young women to engage with those from other communities, this engagement was very limited and further revealed the isolation within which young women currently operate. This also revealed that many of them are unaware of the daily struggles that people face in this post-war context with continued unresolved issues. More than 10 years after the end of war, much of its terrible effects and consequences are not known to the present generation. Despite high levels of education among young people today, they have had little opportunity to design and implement community-based initiatives and rarely engage with government or policy stakeholders, often hindered by their own lack of agency as well as policy makers’ reluctance to see young people as vibrant change makers. The project builds on this need to further develop their capacities, increase their knowledge as well as expand their networks with other youth as well as with key stakeholders in their locations.
Core Objectives and Activities
The objectives of the project were to increase young women’s understanding and knowledge on advocacy strategies and have identified issues related to WPS in their communities, and improve networking and relationships among young women leaders and between stakeholders across divides, including language and ethnicity.
Search targeted young women leaders from Ampara, Batticaloa, Kurunegala and Puttlam districts in this project. The young women were engaged in collaborative context assessments based on the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda and given seed grants to implement initiatives which focused on advocacy related to WPS related issues in their communities. Mentors from all four districts went through an advanced session on mentoring as well as clinic sessions and closely worked with the young women leaders by mentoring and guiding the young women leaders during the seed grants initiative process. Search also organized opportunities for networking among young women leaders and between stakeholders within and across districts.
Results Achieved
- 64 emerging young women leaders from the target districts trained on WPS, non-adversarial advocacy, and project design and received advanced mentorship sessions.
- 98 percent of young women leaders reported that the cross district exchange visit gave them an opportunity to create links and expand relationships with others from different religious and ethnic communities in other districts.
- Young women leaders implemented 8 seed grant projects, impacting their communities. The community feedback survey found that 98 percent of the community members who participated in the seed grant initiatives have agreed that the young women leaders can take leadership to solving problems related to social cohesion.
- 11 government and civil society actors expressed their willingness to support young women leaders to promote social cohesion in their communities.
