Policy paper: Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on young women peacebuilders

UN Women developed this policy paper that sought to understand the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted young women peacebuilders and their work to build and sustain peace in complex contexts. The study highlights key challenges caused by the pandemic, including:

• governments closing civic spaces;
• the digitalization of peacebuilding work with further increases the digital divide; and
• the impact of the pandemic on jobs and livelihoods, challenging young women peacebuilders’ capacity for volunteer work.

Among the key recommendations made to peace and security practitioners, the study highlights the need to pay specific attention to nurture and support young women peacebuilders and young women-led organizations, through:

• accessible and flexible funding;
• paid peacebuilding opportunities; and
• accessible, in-person capacity-building and learning opportunities.

A shorter version of this paper was developed as a contribution to the second report of the UN Secretary-General on youth, peace, and security (S/2022/220).