Andrea (Moderator): Hi everyone, sorry for being late. You're all good. I'm going to give it maybe like one more minute, and then see if there are any stragglers, and then maybe we can make a start. Thanks everybody for waiting. I definitely appreciate it. Yes, all right. So, hi, good morning. Morning!

All right, so I think we're going to go ahead and get started. Again, thank you everybody who came on time, very patient with us, we appreciate it, and apologies in advance for any technical difficulties—you can see the camera is acting weird, but we'll make do.

So, I'm Andrea. I'm with the Major Group for Children and Youth and the Global Youth Caucus on SDG16. I'm also a YPS Officer at Youth Transforming Narratives, and I'll be moderating today's discussion. This event is co-sponsored by the YUNGO Working Group on Climate Peace and Security, the Global Youth Caucus on SDG16, and the Major Group for Children and Youth.

Today, we'll be talking about addressing financing gaps for youth-led peacebuilding initiatives and to propose solutions that align funding with the YPS agenda and the Youth 2030 priorities. We'll also be soliciting inputs for the 2025 Peacebuilding Architecture Review and for the Financing for Development processes. And then, of course, throughout all of this, we'll be showcasing successful youth-driven peacebuilding projects and identifying opportunities for scaling impact.

Very briefly, the agenda today looks like we'll start with Jo giving us some opening remarks, giving us some context on these upcoming processes and everything you need to know around that. We'll move into our panel discussion, and then from there, we'll go into little Group Discussion breakouts. If we have time, hopefully, we'll have somebody report back from your groups as well, and then, of course, we'll close. We do only have about an hour, so this will be very, very quick, and I am going to be very strict on time, so I do apologize for that.

Jo is a Program and Technical Specialist at the Inclusive Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action Program Division at UNFPA. Jo, I'll hand it over to you.

Jo (UNFPA): Okay, thank you very much Andrea, and thanks colleagues, thanks all the organizers. It's a great opportunity for me to be here. I'm really happy. I love talking about YPS and I also love talking about some of the challenges we face.

I'm not going to be super extensive. I will just talk a little bit about what is the current landscape when it comes to YPS implementation and talk a little bit about the financing aspect and some of the challenges and bottlenecks that we face. I just want to emphasize that next year, 2025, is a very crucial year because it's a combination of many processes. It's also the anniversary, both of the YPS resolution—it's a 10th anniversary of YPS—but also going to be the 25th anniversary of the WPS agenda (the Woman Peace and Security agenda). So that in itself puts a lot of attention on those agendas and the need to make sure peacebuilding is inclusive of young people and of women.

It's also the mandated time for the review for the Peacebuilding Architecture Review. So the process of consultations and all the discussions are happening now, but formally the negotiation for the next resolution on the Peacebuilding Architecture, it starts around March next year. And so it's also a very timely discussion because there are still opportunities for us to provide formal submissions to this process.

I'm going to talk a little bit about the PB in a minute, but just to conclude, we also have next year two very important conversations that are not formally linked but are nevertheless crucial, which is the Financing for Development Conference in July and also the Second Social Summit—everything happening also on the wave of the Pact of the Future as you all know, and all the organizations that are co-hosting this were heavily involved last year—well, this year—on the Summit of the Future that just happened. And we are very excited that with the Pact of the Future, member states have recommitted to a series of things, including YPS. It was not an easy journey. There was a lot of advocacy, a lot of push. We almost at some of the drafts the entire YPS section was kicked out. We were happy that in the end there are three specific actions on the Pact of the Future, but those actions really going to help shape and make sure that in moving forward we don't lose the momentum on YPS. One particular action of the Pact of the Future that we are very excited about is the request for a second Progress Study on the implementation of YPS. The first Progress Study was asked in the very first resolution in 2015, and it really helped us to define what we understand as the youth, peace, and security agenda. The report was published by Graeme Simpson, who actually happens to be the co-chair of the from Interpeace for the CSO dialogue. He wrote the first independent Progress Study. I think what was unique at that stage was that we were trying to understand youth, peace, and security not as just the context of youth in wars, but really understanding the violence of exclusion and how YPS really brings to the broader context with young people from different places.

So this is a little bit about the context of what's happening. I want to talk specifically on the Peacebuilding Architecture Review, just to say the process is a little bit complex and has many aspects, but I think what is interesting is that this year there has been a lot of discussions, consultations. Youth has not been yet very structurally engaged in the process. However, part of the process, the Secretary-General appoints a—well, it's a panel of eminent persons—and for the first time we actually have a young person who happens to be from YUNGO who sits there, Joyy. She is representing the youth voices directly in this panel of eminent persons. So it's a good opportunity for us for the first time to have that entry point directly into the people making recommendations to the Secretary-General. The purpose of the review—so the resolution that requests the review every five years—the entire architecture is reviewed. We look into what's happening with the Peacebuilding Commission, which is the intergovernmental space. We look into what's happening with the Peacebuilding Fund, which is the operational part, the money, but also we look into the support functions and the good offices of the support, which is part the department of affairs, PBSO. So the review really look into those three and look into how this architecture still make sense, how do we make sure it remain fit for purpose. So it's actually quite exciting because there is, if I may be very honest, a lot of the reasons why YPS advance so much is thanks especially to the Peacebuilding Fund that has been really the lifeline for a lot of the programming and especially YPS at the country and regional levels. So the fact that there is an opportunity as to even go a step further now and make sure the youth is not just a small part, but it becomes part of the core of this entire architecture, that's very exciting. Also to say the Peacebuilding Commission do have—it's the only intergovernmental body that has a specific strategy on YPS. They don't call it YPS, they call Youth and Peacebuilding, but it is nevertheless really all about implementation of the YPS strategy. If I may be again super honest, personal opinion, not speaking on behalf of my organizations, I think that strategy is limited in terms of ambition. I think there is a lot that can be done in terms of strengthening there. I think the main indicators right now is the number of young briefers to the PBC, so I think we can do much better to advance. I know that the PBC, because it's an intergovernmental body, it can be very slow and very rigid and difficult to move forward, but I do think there is a lot of opportunities for us to push and try to advance and strengthen that strategy so then every year they have to hold themselves accountable and report back.

So this is all I have to say in terms of context. I know I am short of time Andrea, but I want to talk about three very specific emerging topics that are linked to this implementation. I want to talk a little bit about institutionalization, I want to talk about funding, and I want to talk about protection.

In terms of institutionalization, now we are—we just celebrated this this week, actually, 9th of December is the 9th anniversary of YPS. I think for the longest time, YPS was still perceived as a global agenda. Now, more and more countries are localizing, nationalizing, regionalizing, and we have now, yesterday, Malawi launched their National Action Plan. So now we have basically one, two, three, four, five National Action Plans that are fully launched and being started with its implementation. We also have Gambia on the way, which launch in January, so we're going to have in total six National Action Plans fully developed, but we have currently over 60 that are being developed around the world. So every region currently has at least one or two countries that are actively working to develop National Action Plans. Those processes are happening in various different forms and shapes. It's really not consistent. That's one thing we are trying to address. The engagement of young people and especially youth-led organizations in this processes also varies significantly, so we are trying to do more and more to make sure we support member states to do a better job in creating inclusive coalitions with mood stakeholders that can actually help drive those agenda that young people can own the YPS agenda at the country level, but of course every country has its own approach or understanding of this agenda. More needs to be done, but I also want to say that a lot of those action plans are still just action plans; they have zero budget attached to it. So there is basically no implementation. They are great, beautiful words, very inspiring in some cases, but they don't translate into action because there is no any sort of budget attached to it. There is some interesting work, I think especially Gambia, they actually have a fully budgeted National Action Plan, so now that is the challenge of actually mobilizing the resources and implementing, but it's already a step on the right direction.

I also want to talk about institutionalization at the UN level. I think patting ourselves a little bit in the back, I think we've done a good job in terms of trying. We have now a very robust system of YPS focal points in most agencies. There is over 300 from the UN at different levels that have the mandate to work on YPS, and we have our own internal coordination systems for that. We also were able to really revive the Group of Champions of YPS, the member state group, which now has two co-chairs, Finland and Jordan, and they for instance were really the responsible for bringing YPS back into the Pact of the Future, so it shows that having a coordinated effort with member states pays off. We also had an incredible—the number of YPS references and youth references in general into Secretary-General reports into overall reports from different missions has increased significantly. However, we also are experiencing a decrease when it comes to intergovernmental spaces, so we are currently at a record low on number of references to youth in resolutions. So in one case it's great that we have YPS, but youth is being excluded from all the other resolutions, specifically for country cases or for climate or for any other topic, so in a way it's a scary trend that we are siloing youth as just talking about youth—something to watch out. We also have a significant decrease on the number of briefers to the Security Council. I got the numbers just before we start, but basically before we used to have nine, ten briefers, last year we only had three. That is something to observe because also COVID, I think in a very interesting way, created an opportunity. People could join online some of those briefings, which made things easier. Last year, when everything was back in person, a lot of young people don't get visas in the US, and therefore we are reducing the participation of young people there.

So just to say, it's not a pretty picture when it comes to institutionalization. We have the pros and the cons on the financing. I'll be super brief, I know we're going to hear from colleagues that will go much more in depth, but to say, of course, there are three asks. We need more money for sure, but we need to understand this money. Right now, the systems still don't track youth funding, so we don't even know how much money is going to YPS. That's something we've been pushing with the PBF. How do we look and understand how much money is going to youth projects despite beyond just the youth promotion initiative? We also need to do more in terms of access. Youth-led organizations can't access a lot of these resources. Do they still rely on intermediaries or bigger organizations that can get the money and then sub-grant to youth-led organizations?

Last thing I just want to say is that one very concerning trend we are observing is that, unfortunately, there is a crackdown on basically civil society spaces. Civic space is shrinking, and especially young people are reporting more and more violations and reprisals. That is something for us to observe, especially on the context of the YPS agenda. In some countries, people are understanding this as an opportunity to basically counter opposition, to counter diversion voices, so it's something that we are very much concerned and we are looking into, but of course needs much more work. And I'm looking forward to hearing some of the recommendations from this group. Over to you Andrea, I'm sorry I went over time.

Andrea (Moderator): No, I appreciate it. That was really comprehensive, so I didn't want to cut you off at all. We definitely appreciate it. I think now we'll go into our panel discussion. For panelists, please, please, please keep it brief. That way we can still leave time for our group discussion or our group group breakouts later.

I'm going to start with Emanuel, who is an MGCY Delegate. He's also the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development New York, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, WEF Global Shapers Community. So Emanuel, what practical steps can be taken to ensure flexible and direct funding for grassroots youth-led organizations, especially those operating in underfunded regions?

 

Panel Discussion

 

Emanuel (MGCY/WEF Global Shapers): Yeah, thank you everybody for showing up today. And so to kind of address this issue, there's two angles. One on the donor side, with people giving money. The issues are risk and selection, right? Because there are a lot of youth-led organizations. On the youth-led organization side, the issues are accessibility and capacity. A little bit about what Jo said, there is money there, of course, there can always be more money, and there should be more money for these initiatives, but a lot of these organizations are just unable to actually tap into these funds. And despite there being risk, higher risk involved with youth-led organizations, if donors do value this grassroots work, it is necessary for them to become less paternalistic and take on higher risk. They just have to accept, be more willing, with the prospect of loss in that sense. And because, I mean, youth-led organizations are not major development banks, they're not the UNDP, so they're going to have more issues that you have to account for and that you have to support.

So what steps can be taken? Streamlining the application process in terms of accessibility, making sure that these organizations don't have to submit a thousand-and-one documents to get this, or making it so that the application is available to everybody who might not have internet access, for example, especially in underfunded regions that don't have the history of receiving these funds. To increasing the diversity of funds—if there's a large pool just for youth development projects, everybody's going to be applying to that, but if I'm a specific organization, as I am, I work with the city for youth mental health, if there is a youth mental health fund, I am more applicable and I have an easier time of applying and then receiving those funds, so having something that's more related to me definitely helps.

And then also there's a lot of organizational steps, but another third one that I'll just leave with is contributions from donors of non-earmarked funds. It will give them more flexibility to be able to receive these and use it for operational costs, remuneration of their employees, transportation, materials, as opposed to being forced to use their funds for a particular scheme or initiative, giving them that a greater degree of flexibility. And I just end with, while risk should be minimized on the donor end, it of course is still a consideration to be made. And so what can we do to address risk while also being in concert with being in a higher risk tolerance? And even though, despite what Jo said about decreasing the reliance on intermediary organizations, yes, but using intermediary organizations is still a practice that you can use. For example, as opposed to giving my youth committee on mental health direct access to funds, you can give it to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the city, which is who we work for, to kind of use us—to use them to help us allocate those funds and give us the necessary financial and professional development that we need to actually make use of those.

Andrea (Moderator): Oh, thank you so much for that. And Sakshi will come now to you. So Sakshi is part of the YUNGO Working Group on Climate Peace and Security. So how can youth-led projects at the intersection of climate change and peacebuilding secure resources and visibility in really competitive funding environment?

Sakshi (YUNGO Working Group on Climate Peace and Security): Namaste and hello everyone, and thank you for this very critical dialogue that is playing a crucial role in our day-to-day lives and as well as in peace and security agenda. And I'll start with a very cliché thing, which we all are aware that we are dreaming of a very future-ready world, and we want this world to be some sort of best infrastructure or best ever high education or some affordable world-class healthcare system. So youth already has the potential for that and we are now aware about the this potential that youth has, but now the question is that how we can generate the funds and what's the youth-led project that they are currently working on? And the only need is to provide them with the resources, which we are going to talk on, and a good chance to explore on this side.

But if you flip the page and check on, then today's youth have the lack of awareness too about the opportunities in the market. And youth represent over half of the global population. India, for example, where I belong from, has the 365 million population. Yet, their voices often remain marginalized in decision-making processes and certain sort of projects that they should have in the peacebuilding or peaceful approaches. And so, the these way we can have certain solutions that we can have, that is from the leveraging the innovation, adaptability, and the local knowledge of youth that can drive the solutions, and not just being the effective, but also the sustainable and inclusive.

But the challenges that remains the same within the pathways, and which is the first is the funding priorities, which is towards the traditional sectors. And Jo has already explained very rightly that the major funding are gained to the big organizations and not to the local organizations, which is quite a bit harsh truth, and leaving the peacebuilding and the climate work underfunded. Second, the restrictive regulations, such as the foreign contribution laws, is the creation of the additional hurdles for partnerships and the resource mobilizations. And finally, I think the third and the last, that is the lack of trust between the government and the international stakeholders, and even the grassroot organizations compound these issues limiting the collaboration and scaling the opportunities.

And if I come across with the funding resources and how we can secure that, so one can be the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), and for instance, the channels billion annually into the development but excludes the peacebuilding as a category. Similarly, the National Youth Policy, if I consider from India or some other states, which should are going to serve for the 400 million young people, but fail to mention about the peace even once in its 94 pages agenda or the policy plans.

Yeah, so to overcome these barriers, I think these are the three things that needs to be considered: one is the local ownership, and trust building among the stakeholders, and the third one is the collective action. And this is what I have to say.

Andrea (Moderator): No, thank you. That was super comprehensive, and apologies for having to cut you off yet again. I wish we had so much more time.

I'm now going to go over to Salma with the Major Group for Children and Youth. What innovative approaches can be implemented to foster global solidarity and collaboration among youth from diverse and conflict-affected contexts?

Salma (Major Group for Children and Youth): Thank you so much, Andrea. Honestly, when it comes to youth from the MENA region and beyond, they face systematic barriers. We talk about logistical problems. For example, just recently when we talk about SB6 in Bonn Climate Conference, so many youth from the Global South, not only the MENA region, were not able to go and attend and address their challenges just because of certain logistical barriers. And that's actually something really sad because it somehow undermines the inclusivity of this youth in global discussions, which is exactly what we need for us to integrate our voices.

The second thing, when we talk, for example, about Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine, Congo, and the list keeps on going, we see how youth actually are really responding to these crises with remarkable resilience, but unfortunately, they still need more resources, they still need more funding, and more platforms for them to voice up themselves. We're talking about them somehow leaving their storytelling for the coming generations to learn from them and take the same actions, why not better? We need more funding to be dedicated to those youth. We're not seeing so many youth-led initiatives are being established across the MENA region. We're not seeing so much funding dedicated to them. We're not seeing so many resources available for them to just start that first step. There are so many political restrictions that are happening across the region, which limits their actions and their advocacy, which is actually sometimes even considered risky, and that's actually something that is not addressed much.

One more thing that I wanted to address in here was for us maybe to consider having more conflict-sensitive hackathons, summits, forums, whatever it was, where we can somehow, for example, establish initiatives or projects that design sprints addressing issues like refugee support, mental health, and so on. When we talk always when we talk about crisis and conflict, we never bring—we never bring that part of what happens after that conflict. So many of these youth are turned into refugees, and refugees are marked as a red line. They don't have the chance to somehow just act freely in other countries, to be—we don't—we barely address this outcome of coming from a conflict. I have so many friends who are refugees in other countries, and honestly, for them to practice their advocacy, it's really hard. For them to establish their own initiatives, it's also hard. So, what I want to somehow wrap up with would be for us to really advocate for those people because it's our responsibility.

The second thing would be to always request more funding, more resources to be available for us in order to do the next step. We want to establish initiatives, we want to do a lot, we want to take a lot of actions. It's just we need that first push from people in power. The third thing, which is the last—is always, always, and that's something we always insist on, is to have us more involved in decision and policymaking because we're going to lead in the future and we don't want to repeat our leaders' mistakes.

Andrea (Moderator): Yeah, thank you so much. And that actually leads really nicely into our next question to Arian, who's also with Major Group Children and Youth and Effective Altruism Hong Kong. So the question for you is how can successful local practices in youth-led peacebuilding be effectively scaled up and integrated into National and International policy frameworks?

Arian (MGCY/Effective Altruism Hong Kong): Yeah, sure. Thank you. Thank you, Andrea, for hosting this event. So it's kind of funny because two hours ago we received an email that our organization can host a side event in the Munich Security Council, which is one of the biggest international security events in the world. So from this point, I want to reflect how to get to this point. We were able to host such a big conference because one year ago, our organization handed in a draft about peace and security, youth peace and security, in the Summit of the Future draft for CSOs. So every CSO can hand in one draft to the UN, and we got a sign from that.

That's a very interesting experience because I sometimes find out that from local practice to international practice, the most important thing is scalability. I think a lot of time, sometimes we, as youth, doing peacebuilding or peace and security in general, we have looked too far away from the point we can able to achieve. But however, if you do step by step, actually you can reach a very impactful scale. For example, in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is relatively a very safe place and the greater China area as well, so for Hong Kong, the more impactful area would be knowledge sharing and fundraising. So for my organization, when we do peace-related stuff, we do more about, for example, doing events, doing policy input, rather than doing project management in that. And I think that's very important: where you base your effectiveness, how much input you can get. For example, if you're more from a more conflicted area, then you should more focus on probably on-the-ground work and how you connect with the international level. If you're from a more international city like New York, London, or Hong Kong, Singapore, or Paris, or Berlin, then you probably more focus on getting more, how to hire up people to listen to your policy solution. So I think that's my little sharing as well.

Andrea (Moderator): I appreciate it, and I wish we could give you more time for that. It's not an easy question to answer in like two seconds, really.

John, I'm coming to you next. So you're with the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace. And what steps can be taken to bridge gaps between local youth-led practices and policymaking at national and international levels, especially to ensure that these efforts receive institutional support and sustainable funding?

John (International Association of Youth and Students for Peace): Good morning. Thank you to the organizers for this opportunity to speak on this topic. I want to start with a specific example. One of the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace programs, or IAYSP, is the Peace Designer Training. And this teaches participants to create peace projects by addressing specific community issues, using education and design thinking to develop practical solutions. In the Balkans, IAYSP has trained over 170 youth, and one of such projects that emerged from this education is a youth training program to support young women pursuing careers in law enforcement, aiming to increase their representation. For the past two years, the University of Business and Technology in Kosovo and the University of Tetovo in North Macedonia have training programs with IAYSP. The results of these trainings are periodically sent to the respective ministries of education, which can open a path to substantial policy changes. Programs like these highlight that when young people are empowered with education and mentorship, they can transform their community to impact policymaking. The key, of course, is to getting governmental engagement is also to solve an issue that the government is actually looking to address.

So to ensure that these youth local youth-led practices are connected to national and international policymaking, I would like to suggest three crucial steps. Firstly, invest in education and resources. Many youth lack tools and platforms to scale their initiatives, nor are even aware of the SDGs, right? The last Youth Peacebuilding Report in 2023 called for further investments in educational initiatives and in mentorship programs for youth. We haven't really seen this recommendation seeks to ensure that the provision of such necessary resources and platforms for skill enhancement and leadership development are there. Secondly, integrate local voices. National and international policy should create local mechanisms that ensure that the lived experiences of youth are actually shaped in within the decision-making. This means elevating grassroots initiatives into broader frameworks for peace and security. Another one of our program, Synergy, provides a platform for youth to present innovative solutions to pressing societal challenges. These events bring relevant stakeholders together to really bring everyone involved in decision-making together. And lastly, forge collaborative partnerships. Really important as we can see when youth organizations work with governments and universities and global institutions, we can see that they will thrive. Another point from the CSO Peacebuilding Report, and I'll end it here, is that it's important to highlight that peacebuilding networks should ensure smaller and diverse organizations' voices are heard and strengthened. I see that my time is up, so I'll leave it at that. Thank you very much.

Andrea (Moderator): That was awesome and very comprehensive again. So, appreciate it. T we're going to end with you. So this is the Major Group Children Youth Humanitarian Affairs Focal Point. So what strategies can be adopted to sustain youth-led peacebuilding efforts in emergency and humanitarian contexts where resources are often limited?

T (MGCY Humanitarian Affairs Focal Point): All right, okay. First of all, thank you so much for having me and thank you for the question. I'm just going to dive in straight into what I would like to share.

In relation to humanitarian settings, I think as we navigate the complexities of peacebuilding in emergency and humanitarian settings, I think one of the most impactful, yet often overlooked, resources is the youth itself. Young people, despite the many challenges they face in such context, they possess unique perspectives and energy that can drive sustainable change. But however, sustaining youth-led peacebuilding efforts in environments where resources are very limited requires a lot of strategic thinking, also resilience. And in these challenging environments where resources are often scarce and instability is the norm, young people are often at the forefront of efforts to rebuild their communities and also bring about lasting peace. So, despite the adversity they face, youth bring unique energy, creativity, and also hope to the table and what not, yes. But we should always ask ourselves: How can we ensure that these youth efforts not only survive but thrive in even such difficult circumstances?

And I would like to focus into three strategies that I think it's very timely and also something very important. First, I think we should be focusing on strengthening local capacities and building up leadership skills of these youth. Youth-led initiatives are most effective when young people have the tools and knowledge to navigate the complexities of peacebuilding. And by providing training in conflict resolution, leadership, and community engagement, we enable young people to take ownership of their peacebuilding efforts. And these programs don't just help youth lead, but they also equip them to lead effectively, ensuring that even with limited resources, they can still create impactful change.

And second, I would like to bring upon leveraging technology and also digital platforms. And I think in today's world, technology offers us incredible opportunities. Digital tools and platforms allow you to connect, share ideas, collaborate across borders, and in settings where physical resources may be scarce, these digital platforms and best practices offer space for youth to advocate for peace on the global stage.

And lastly, on mobilizing local resources and community support. While external funding is important, yes, but we cannot overlook the power of local resources and community engagement. And the support of community leaders and local stakeholders is invaluable. And by involving the community in peacebuilding process and tapping into local assets, youth can build initiatives that are not only sustainable but deeply rooted in the culture and needs of the people they serve. And just my last few words, few sentences: Sustaining youth-led peacebuilding in emergency and humanitarian context is not just about securing funding or external resources, but it's also about creating an environment where youth are supported, empowered, and given the tools to lead even in the most resource-constrained settings. Young people have the power to transform their communities and create lasting peace. And I think with all, thank you so much.

Andrea (Moderator): Thank you, and that was a really great way to end off our panel. I think that that last statement really transcends not only just emergency contexts, but really youth everywhere. And so now we move into our group discussions.

 

Group Discussion Synthesis (Moderator and Group Reports)

 

Andrea (Moderator): All right, so in the next 10 or so minutes, hopefully we'll get through everybody in about—if you guys could keep your presentations to about like three or so minutes, that would be really helpful. We want to end on time—more on time at least—than we were before. So, online, I'll start with you—whoever wants to speak on behalf of the group.

José (Online Group Reporter): Hi Andrea. Yeah, first of all, I think we discussed several points. One of the point mentioned by Sakshi is actually also important, and we—we talked about several smaller issues as well, and we also receive and heard from Bernard. But basically, to summarize in short, our breakout group's discussion is focusing on how to enable equitable opportunities towards funding by youth, as well as how youth could mobilize their actions in the midst of conflict, because I think youth groups in conflict countries, in failed states, I think they have lesser and unprivileged situation to access funding towards YPS to develop their and implement their own YPS projects. And second of all, I think rule of law is very important, and I believe the specific recommendation will be to also bring... however, what we want to focus more is basically on how to make sure that in order to align YPS agenda towards much more accessible, equitable, and sustainable financing, of course the changes should be done towards the system as well as the bureaucracy as well as the enabling environment. Maybe Sakshi or Bernard, I apologize, please elaborate more on your keywords. Sorry. Thank you.

Sakshi (Online Group Member): Yeah, so I agree on your part as well, and the national or the localized funding is a key role to it, and a decentralization of the decision-making process also, because at the local level they do consider these aspects. But when you go to the higher hierarchies, then the top-bottom approach or the bottom-top approach doesn't give any consideration. So, at least start with the localized one, and local stakeholders—we have already discussed that in the past one that we should—they are okay with the funding raise, and they are trying, getting into the investment as well. So, let's approach those in the ground level and at the grassroots level. And when we should—when we get the funding from those, and if not, then we—the basic understanding and basic step is the baby step is the just to start with the awareness, which is not still not there at the local level. So, if they do and if you are aware, then come to the funding and the projects. And if they have the projects, then it's come to funding. And if they're getting the funding from the localized government or some sort of support from the government local ways or some private support also from the businessmen or small medium enterprises, then we have the approach to how local efforts can be scheduled and connect with the more global efforts and how we can have the traditional knowledge into our global cooperation. So, yes, so this, yeah.

Andrea (Moderator): Thank you so much. I will need to cut you off there. Now, starting with our groups in the room, I'm just going to go like that. So, let's with this group over here. What do you have for us? And again, please try to keep it as brief as possible. Apologies.

Unidentified Speaker (Group 1 Reporter): Yeah, so we addressed all three of the questions, and I'll just kind of go through them.

So about what are the most effective financing models, we said the easiest and most available are grants because they're just very direct. They often don't come with—it's easier in terms of receiving that money as well if you're not a tax-exempt organization, and there's just a plethora of grants—directed, niche, diverse grants that you can get. But then we also said that direct funding and donations are great as well, whether that's from fundraising, crowdsourcing, or what would be really helpful sometimes is even having a direct benefactor with kind of public or private incorporation. Like if you are directly established through a private entity, that saves you money. And then also we explored stakeholder matchmaking, where we contribute X, Y, and Z to an initiative, and then the matchmaker, the stakeholder, contributes the same amount of money in order to, you know, kind of collaborate our scope.

Now, what changes to current funding mechanisms? We say streamlining the application process, place-based development sensitivity, because not only should we, of course, make the applications easier and increase the necessary documentations, especially for newer organizations, but then a lot of times you even have established organizations that just because they exist in a developing region or in a conflicted region, some donors will be risk averse, so they would not want to invest there, and so it's necessary that if we do value this work that we have to be sensitive to these kind of considerations and also just take on higher risk necessarily. And then also, increasing the capacity building and learning spaces so that these youth-led organizations know how to finance, they know how to apply for grants, they know how to be in this management position.

And then the last question, what specific recommendations would we give to P-BAR and FFD? Adoption of transparent reporting and tracking mechanisms, practice what they mean about youth inclusion, making meaningful and and also desired participation of youth organizations, making them feel welcomed in these spaces, and then lastly, increase the communication, like the marketing of these global initiatives, like making sure people know what YPS is at the local level.

Andrea (Moderator): Brilliant. Thank you. Let's move over to this group.

Unidentified Speaker (Group 2 Reporter): I'll try to be succinct, but we had everything inside the Google Docs, so any references you can make there. Focus more there.

So on the first question, we focus more on having decentralized peer-to-peer funding, using blockchain to reduce banking barriers and ensure transparency. So we also encourage direct donation platforms to channel fund straight to the affected communities, cutting out intermediaries, and having flexible financing models through grants and CSR. Establish trusted focal points to manage these funds with integrity and invest in digital and physical infrastructure for long-term growth.

For the second question, we focus more on having more funding mechanisms that leverage technologies as mentioned, but also simplifying the funding process to be transparent, user-friendly, and trust-based, ensuring that these initiatives are sustainable. We highlight that there is a need for a lot of support to community-driven project with local involvement and promote self-sustaining models to reduce dependency, as well as decentralized funding to empower local youth organization and ensure that marginalized groups are prioritized.

And for the recommendations for P-BAR and FFD, we want more direct fund towards youth-led organizations and affected communities to give them control over priorities, ensure that there's equitable distribution towards marginalized regions, and strengthen national alliances through national CSOs and etc. for capacity building and monitoring, emphasis on the monitoring part as well. Some last words is that we want to promote cross-sector collaboration to share best practices and advocate for shared knowledge platforms, including the youth advocates with policy makers, embassies, funders, donors in policy discussion, so we can shape the funding process itself, invest in long-term capacity building and created a very supportive ecosystem for sustaining.

Andrea (Moderator): Awesome, thank you so much. And I think so far you're the briefest person yet, so I really appreciate that as moderator. All right, we're going to move to this group over here.

Unidentified Speaker (Group 3 Reporter): So we said that sometimes it is not possible to get from your own government, so apply for funding coming from other countries, coming from of the government. What we find useful is, for example, we apply for a proposal that has—that tries to tackle a very specific need and very specific problem or very specific community. So something that, for example, the government is already trying to tackle, and we have focus on, for example, education and technology—those are usually topics that gain a lot of attention. Another good practice is, for example, prepare proposals in advance in accordance to the community needs and the government's needs, and then whenever there is an open opportunity, apply. We stress the importance of intermediary organizations, for example, when it comes to receiving and having the structures to receive some funds and then be able to forward it to more local organizations. And then, for example, in the case of projects that focus on the reintegration of ex-combatants, sometimes it's quite hard to understand for the general public what why is this—what are this important, so really taking enough time to explain to the private sector, the government, and the general public what these projects are about. Some recommendations: invest in proper communication on social media or closer to young people, what are the current funding opportunities available, because we were talking about a lot of funding available, but the risk is that people on the ground don't even know about them, so focus on communicating it more transparently. Also, for some of the governments to create spaces where youth and businesses can meet and can exchange. And then maybe we add also investing on youth-led organization and not on youth-serving.

Andrea (Moderator): Yeah, that that final point is rather important, I think, in this space. And then finally, this group over here.

Unidentified Speaker (Group 4 Reporter): So the first question: the funding model that our group felt has worked pretty good for us has been microgrants, which comes along with less administrative burden. And another thing that we wanted to point out was that if we had more flexible funding, considering taking into account that the changing nature of peacebuilding work, that comes along with that would be a good suggestion we make. What changes you want to make to the current funding mechanism would be first to increase access to marginalized communities. The bigger problem is not just increasing the access, it's making them aware that these are the opportunities that are available, as I remember somebody mentioned on the panel today that the youth today is aware, but not really aware of the opportunities that are available. Second thing that we wanted to focus on on was increasing the capacity building in financial literacy because getting those funds and knowing where to use them and when to use them is very important. The third thing that we wanted to point out was not just using our resources directly, but also building some mentorship networks so that we can cut down on our resources, save on them, and use them better. And the third question, I felt Natalia had a better answer to that, and she want to take it.

Natalia (Group 4 Member): No, I mean, it was just that the the PBF fund, for example, gives 40% to local-led initiatives and 60% to international organizations and more structured. So then someone just pointed out that it should be the other way around, so 60/40, not 40/60, taking into account that local organizations are the one that actually know the context and can really maximize impact.

Andrea (Moderator): Of course, yeah. Thank you so much. That's super comprehensive. And as I said, everybody who received the calendar invite has both the concept note and this document linked, and so if you felt your group had something else that you realized, oh, we forgot to put it there, feel free to do that. We will also be creating a readout of this session with some of these insights as well, and we'll send that out probably in like the next week or so, so everybody will have access to this. But once again, thank you everybody for participating. It's been really successful, I think. And it's only 10:46, so we're pretty on time, I will say. Yeah, thank you so much, everybody for joining. I'm going to end it here, but definitely keep being active in this space. Next year is a really big year for YPS, especially with the 10th anniversary coming up. And I'll introduce some of these processes going forwards, and so financing in particular will be a really—not only is it a practical concern, but it will be at in high-level spaces a big discussion point. Yes, thank you so much, everybody for joining online. I'm going to end it here.