Youth-led peacebuilding: learning from Gen Z in electoral moments

Photo credits: shot by Sidoh

Ten years after the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2250 (2015), the recognition of the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda is no longer in question. Through subsequent resolutions (2419, 2535, and 2807), the Security Council has repeatedly affirmed young people as partners in peacebuilding, conflict prevention and democratic processes. The normative framework is now well established. The more urgent challenge is institutional learning: how can global and national actors learn from the ways young people are already organizing for peace, particularly during high-stakes moments such as elections? 

Across regions, youth mobilization is shaping electoral dynamics far beyond voter turnout. Young people are central to voter outreach, digital engagement, community dialogue, peace messaging and narrative formation, often operating outside formal civic education pathways or institutional programming. Their organizing emerges through peer networks, cultural spaces, sport, informal dialogue and locally rooted initiatives – spaces where trust is relational. Yet, institutional youth engagement interventions often remain standardized, tied to electoral calendars and oriented towards immediate risks and deliverable targets rather than long-term transformation that enables sustained youth participation or influence.  

This misalignment matters. During an election, when political tensions escalate quickly, institutional youth engagement efforts risk arriving too late or missing the informal spaces where tensions first escalate.

Youth peace organizing during elections 

Electoral periods concentrate political risk. For young people, especially organizers, this can be a time of both opportunity and vulnerability. Exposure to violence, surveillance, misinformation and polarization increases, and these risks are heightened for young women – often at the forefront of mobilization while also being among the most vulnerable to backlash. 

In these moments, responses to effectively prevent tensions from escalating into violence must be swift, relational and grounded in daily life. Youth-led peace initiatives prioritize speed, trust and accessibility – qualities that allow rapid detection of shifts in political tone, early de-escalation and credible communication within communities. Their strength lies not in scale, but in relevance.  

In the Kenyan context, youth-led peace organizers during elections have consistently relied on peer credibility to counteract the historical manipulation of young people as ‘tools’ of political violence. Young organizers draw on shared identity, social proximity and lived experience. They convene conversations where institutional actors may not be present or trusted. This approach is relational rather than programmatic, it favours participation over instruction and dialogue over messaging, and it tends to misalign with institutional designs centred around standardization, predefined outputs and formal delivery mechanisms. 

Peer-based approaches as peace infrastructure

Peer-to-peer approaches are a core infrastructure for peace. They are embedded in everyday social life. They move through friendship networks, youth groups, sports teams, creative spaces and digital communities. This architecture reflects how political narratives circulate and how conflict can escalate, or be contained, within communities. 

In electoral contexts, this infrastructure becomes critical. Peer networks enable rapid response to misinformation, support non-violent political participation and create space for disagreement without escalation. They allow youth to act with credibility and influence where formal institutions may not be present or trusted. 

Supporting peer-based peace organizing means recognizing informal leadership, protecting civic space and engaging youth networks as vital sources of insight into political behaviour and conflict dynamics. Seeing youth-led peer networks as living infrastructure for peace, rather than just as tools for delivering predetermined programmes, helps institutions appreciate how communities actually maintain stability. It also allows interventions to be more responsive, grounded in local realities and built to last, rather than rigid or disconnected from the people they aim to support. 

Play for Peace: a model for inclusive, safe and experiential political learning

Youth are often expected to participate in elections and peace processes, yet they rarely have access to safe, meaningful and relevant spaces to learn and practice political engagement. Traditional civic education can feel abstract, disconnected from everyday life, or delivered too late to make a real difference. Moreover, it assumes that young people have confidence, feel safe and trust institutions, which is often not the case. As a result, during elections, participating politically can carry real personal risks for young people.  

There are models, based on youth-organizing principles, that demonstrate what effective institutional learning could – and should – look like, bridging the gap between youth-led practice and institutional design.  

One such model is Play for Peace, an initiative that combines card games, women’s sports and facilitated intercultural dialogue to create accessible entry points into political learning for the youth. 

At its core is Ballot Battle: The Campaign Trail, a Kenyan card-based civic education game that simulates political competition, creating a shared experience of political decision-making. The game emphasizes political learning as collective and experiential rather than instructional, lowering barriers related to age, literacy, political affiliation and confidence, and creating a safe space for experimentation and reflection. Moreover, in contexts where political engagement exposes young people to violence, surveillance or targeting, play creates distance without disengagement. It allows exploration without immediate personal risk.  

Call to action

Globally, election periods will continue to be high-stakes and unpredictable, with tensions often escalating quickly. Young people, particularly Gen Z, are emerging as key actors in shaping political participation and peace outcomes during these moments, often stepping in where formal institutions are absent or unable to act promptly. Their influence will endure, so the responsibility now lies with institutions to learn quickly and deliberately. This means observing youth-led practice as a source of expertise, not simply as implementation capacity for predesigned programmes.  

With the YPS framework firmly established and youth peace organizing efforts active and adaptive, the central challenge is institutional: learning fast and thoughtfully enough to support peace when it matters most.