Start Date: 1/11/2021. End Date: 01/11/2023.
Project Reference: 2021-1-BG01-KA220-YOU-000028518
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, estimates that war and conflict had uprooted more than 80 million people around the world, representing the highest number in recorded history. Even Europe, which appears to be one of the safest parts of the world, is not immune to conflict. Indeed, structural issues, such as climate change, natural disasters, COVID-19, human trafficking, limited employment opportunities for young people and marginalization – together with the growing threat of violent radicalization – challenge the idea that Europe is a secure and peaceful continent.
Global reports such as “The Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy” have also clearly established links between education, conflict and peace. Higher education is not exempt. Indeed, education plays an imperative role in peace building; if a young person enrolled to university is educated, he/she not only understands and possesses academic knowledge, but also acquires moral values, norms, etiquettes, proper code of conduct, decency and effective ways of communication; education will enable him/her to find out means to resolve the conflicts in an effective manner without being aggressive. Through an effective peace building education, youths become more effective communicators, more engaged citizens, and learn to think critically about the relationships between local and global issues. These skills are all vital to building peace in a world full of conflicts.
However, much of the current educational provision is offered piecemeal, disconnected from other relevant learning opportunities. There is no clear guidance for youth on the skills and competencies they should acquire and no easy way for them to combine courses strategically.
Indeed, youths who wish to learn about peacebuilding and develop their skills in this area can turn to a range of learning providers. These include formal educators, such as universities, and non-formal educators, such as NGOs. Collaboration between these two learning providers is often challenged by differences in pedagogical perspective, underpinning ethos and teaching methodology. So, the immediate consequence is that these educators are disconnected from one another, with a particularly huge gap between formal and non-formal education providers.
On this line, through ILP project, a mixed consortium of NGOs (non-formal education) and universities (formal education), operating in post-conflict and conflict affected countries (Palestine, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina), come together to consider why the gap between the two types of learning providers persists and what can be done to support the learning outcomes of youth looking for high quality teaching and training in peacebuilding.
ILP will aim to improve the provision of teaching, learning and training within the peacebuilding sector by bringing together providers from the formal and non-formal education sectors into a community of practice, and creating innovative tools for youths and educators. ILP will enable the creation of a set of tools for youths and educators, to help educators to adopt methodologies needed for providing the necessary competences to youth to become peacebuilders. The main objective of ILP is to enable innovative new approaches by:
•Creating a common framework of key competencies across the formal and non-formal education sectors
•Helping young people find navigable and flexible pathways for accessing relevant learning opportunities
•Blending formal and non-formal education learning approaches for more comprehensive provision, using technology.
ILP direct target groups will be:
-formal (university teachers) and non-formal educators (youth workers) which will benefit of a new integrated formal and non-formal learning approaches in their work;
-young people who want to develop their knowledge in peacebuilding to take action, further studies or to become peacebuilders.