Future leaders look at ways to increase youth engagement in trade for peace worldwide

Involving youth in trade policy-making and peacebuilding has been at the forefront of the WTO Trade for Peace Programme, which calls for collaboration between the trade, peace and humanitarian communities to enhance opportunities to leverage the multilateral trading system as a driver of peace and stability.

Participants in the event were paired up with a counterpart to think across disciplines, discussing sustainable solutions to current challenges affecting trade and peace.

Each round of conversations allowed them to discuss a set of questions related to the two disciplines to help them understand each other’s work and ideas in their respective communities. Each pair was then asked to write a sentence summarizing their discussion or a message they wanted to convey following the discussions.

Maika Oshikawa, Director of the Accessions Division at the WTO, said involving youth is key to building a future of peace and prosperity, particularly at a time when more than one third of the 1.8 billion world’s youth population live in fragile and conflict-affected regions.

“They are often the most affected by conflict and fragility, sometimes being forced to participate in targeted violence and conflict. Youth rely on the post-conflict reconstruction processes and are severely affected by the lack of economic opportunities. This is the reason why we thought it is really important to create this platform of future leaders so that trade and peace people can start talking to each other,” she said.

Isabelle Despicht, President of the Graduate Institute Peacebuilding Initiative, thanked the WTO for hosting the event and enabling people from two different disciplines to come together and bring about change through the exchange of ideas and critical thinking.

“This event offers the unique opportunity for us to come together, break down barriers and share knowledge. So let us work together to build bridges, break silos and pave the way for next generations,” she said.

Acknowledging the need to further engage with the youth and the important role that they play in advancing peace and security and shaping the future of trade, the Trade for Peace: Future Leaders initiative was launched in September 2022, focusing its activities on young people from 15 to 32 years old in pursuit of four objectives:

  • Bringing together and better engaging youth involved in the fields of trade and peace;
  • Raising awareness on the reality of youth involvement in conflict and on the essential role they can play in building peace through trade;
  • Giving a platform for youth voices in peacebuilding efforts through trade; and
  • Fostering youth creative-thinking and innovative solutions for trade and peace.

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