Searching for Peace in Afghanistan: Collaborative Possibilities for Youth in Peacebuilding

A WISCOMP Roundtable

April 27, 2008

The roundtable will bring together some 30 experts, scholars, practitioners, Afghan students, Indian youth organizations and representatives of governments from Afghanistan, India and other countries to reflect upon the challenges and possibilities for Afghan youth in becoming an integral part of peacebuilding processes. The discussion, it is hoped, will provide spaces for dialogue in the context of ethnic political conflict, and more especially as an approach to augment practices of coexistence in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies. This will also be an attempt to examine why and to what extent the youth have and can take part in peacebuilding through dialogue, education and processes of conflict transformation.

The discussion will further WISCOMP's knowledge and understanding to better contextualize the current peacebuilding issues in Afghanistan, the role of India and other governments' in peacebuilding initiatives. The discussion will also provide a platform to share the lessons learnt from successful or thwarted peacebuilding processes in Afghanistan. The focus will be to explore possibilities of capitalizing on the capacities of Afghan youth for conflict transformation.