Research and Knowledge Review on Youth and DDR: Normatively Established, Operationally Nascent
This report explores the interlinkages between DDR and youth, peace and security to make future DDR initiatives both more relevant to young people and to better leverage the progress made by youth as peacebuilders.
In the past decade, international peace and security policy has undergone significant normative changes in how it understands the role of young people in conflict-affected contexts.
The adoption of the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda at the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (2015) marked a decisive shift away from viewing youth primarily as victims or security risks to be managed, to affirming that young people are key and prioritised actors for promoting sustainable peace and security.
In parallel, of relevance for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR), a similar commitment is outlined in the 2019 revision of the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS), specifically within its module on Youth and DDR which recognizes youth as “a force of positive change” and emphasizes their political agency.
Together, these developments signal a renewed interest in moving beyond treating youth merely as a distinct DDR caseload and passive beneficiaries, towards engaging young people as partners and agents of change.
It is critical to recognize that this shift is not merely a normative aspiration; young people are already making significant, often undocumented, contributions to reintegration and prevention work. This report by Jacqui Cho, on the commission of the Folke Bernadotte Academy, highlights these efforts and explores the interlinkages between DDR and youth, ranging from peer-led disengagement to community-level reconciliation, and showcases concrete opportunities to further strengthen and draw inspiration from these initiatives.
Bringing together academic, policy and practice-oriented research, as well as practitioner interviews, the main body of the report identifies key challenges in developing youth-sensitive DDR processes and in turn suggests opportunities and entry points to bring about more meaningful convergence between YPS and DDR.
Then, building on the challenges and opportunities, the report ends by outlining forward-looking outputs to guide future stages of the process. This includes suggesting concepts of youth that are DDR-appropriate, and outlining targeted implications for relevant stakeholders, notably DDR practitioners, YPS practitioners, donors, and researchers.