The problems with an internationally-imposed peacebuilding agenda

Youth in Libya make up 65% of the population but are disproportionately under-represented in both national and local government institutions. Libya’s post-2011 political landscape changed significantly following international political and military interventions that impacted all aspects of Libyan life. The revolution led to a wave of change among Libya’s youth given the limited role they played in social peace and local development before 2011.

Following the conflict, Libya attracted many NGOs and UN agencies that work on supporting the influx of migrants and refugees, providing assistance to vulnerable communities or empowering women, youth and civil society organisations, etc.... With the recruitment of Libyan youth to implement their projects, a culture of humanitarian work spawned within the formerly coveted international sector.

Nonetheless, the contentious legacy of foreign intervention has generated skepticism among Libyans regarding external motives and intentions, fostering resistance against any externally imposed initiatives. As a result, efforts to implement a peacebuilding agenda may be perceived as neo-colonial or patronising rather than supportive, which can alienate young peacebuilders and diminish their engagement in the process.

Youth’s role in the peacebuilding sector

While observing the dynamics of Libya’s peacebuilding sector, it is interesting to see the role played by stakeholders such as UN bodies, NGOs and internationally supported civil society organisations. It’s safe to say that it created competition between agencies and led to questionable impact on the target population, especially in terms of longevity and sustainability.

Youth have come to embody brokers, fixers, go-betweens, and persons-in-between, thus becoming key supporting actors in international project implementation. Yet they remain on the sidelines of policy-making. Despite ongoing tribal and regional disputes, youth have circumvented traditional reconciliation plans and tried to build peace on a local level by creating peace-building networks, civil society networks and asserted their involvement in political processes.

In terms of exclusion, young people provide expertise to international and national organisations, however they should be viewed as “participants and not only as knowledge providers”. For example, “ensuring young people are represented in the legislative and executive branches and in decision-making processes, both nationally and locally” will promote a stronger role in peacebuilding and politics. As of 2018, findings show that the participation of young people in formal and institutional political processes is relatively low, unorganised and fragile.

Examples of youth led peacebuilding work and its impact

Despite the challenges and lack of governmental support, youth in Libya are more likely to reach peace agreements through their advanced skills in conflict analysis, networks developed by peacebuilders and their continuous interest in reconciliation to overcome conflict between Libya’s regions. Through their reconciliation initiative in the South of Libya, a youth-led organisation, Moomken was able to create dialogue sessions between members of different communities in Nalut and Batin al Jabal to facilitate the return of Umm al-Far residents following displacement. A notable Libyan-led achievement supported by international bodies to reconcile two tribes with different ethnic heritage.

In an interview with two young peacebuilders in Libya, Ibrahim and Huda, Ibrahim shares that his idea of civil society organisations was getting popular following the revolution. Huda shares that before the revolution, Libyan youth were not part of building Libya's future despite their role being incremental to creating impactful change. Following 2011, Huda’s work focused on youth volunteers, entrepreneurship and the role in building civil societies, which has been an important aspect in Libya’s path to building peace. Youth gained access to workshops, trainings and mentorships to become part of civic engagement, elections, the media, and reconstruction. They were also able to help build resilient societies, especially for marginalised communities and internally displaced people, such as the Tawerghan community who have been displaced to the East of Libya for 14 years now.

The need for youth in Peacebuilding

Looking at the past ten years, youth have found themselves in a cul-de-sac between progressive change and periods of stagnation. Following the LPDF agreement signed in Geneva, the peacebuilding pillar was necessary for sustainable reconciliation following years of civil war and division between Libya’s eastern, western and southern regions.

The ongoing political division is an obstacle to a robust peacebuilding profile strong enough to address issues, especially for women and youth who remain marginalised from agenda-setting. Libya still needs to work on youth integration in decision-making. The advancement of youth and women's voices remains tokenised and as a result, agency is stripped from women’s and youth’s voices.

To address these issues, young, local peacebuilders in Libya deserve real support to continue their mission towards peace and reconciliation as they are the most impacted stakeholders. Their commendable role and involvement in peacebuilding means that the more support they get, the higher the impact will be. Youth, women and vulnerable communities need to know they are not being tokenised, but rather have agency as their impact is large and important. Engaging with them sporadically weakens political involvement and momentum is lost.

Conclusion

Given that millions of dollars have been spent to support the peacebuilding sector under the guise of buzz words such as “civic engagement”, “youth empowerment”, “inclusivity”, it poses the question - how much of these projects have shown a long-term impact and to what extent have they benefited the communities they should be targeting?

In the realm of reconciliation, youth groups in civil society organisations have made impressive strides across Libya's three regions, which confirms that peacebuilding in Libya is witnessing slow yet substantial improvement. However, advocating for inclusivity is an essential gap that must be bridged if Libya is to achieve lasting stability.