One of the main pillars of the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda is to enhance youth participation and raise awareness of youth in the issues of peace and conflicts. As a center of expertise in civilian crisis management, CMC Finland has integrated the objectives and targets of the agenda to its functions and as one of its actions pursues to broaden its role as a national actor strengthening and supporting youth interested in issues on peace and security.
We put our objectives into practice in Crisis Management NOW event where we organized a conflict analysis workshop for young people and students interested in conflict analysis. The main objective of the workshop was to familiarize the participants with conflict analysis, its tools and, most importantly, conducting conflict analyses in practice. The workshop brought together over 20 young people and students from different academic and professional backgrounds and they were tasked to analyze the ongoing conflict in Sudan using a so-called PACD model in conflict analysis. The PACD model is divided into four analyzable features of conflict, which are Profile, Actors, Conflict Factors and Dynamics. The main idea of the model is to increase the understanding of the interaction between the context and future/current interventions as well as provide a systematic understanding of a specific conflict situation (Mustasilta & Hakala, 2023).
The workshop launched off with introductions to the workshop, PACD model and conflict in Sudan, which was given by CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation’s project officer Sanne Reitsma. After the introductions, the participants, divided into five smaller groups, began conducting their analyses. Experts in conflict analysis and comprehensive crisis management from CMC Finland, CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, Finnish Institute of International Affairs and SaferGlobe were present in the workshop supporting groups by commenting on their analyses and advising them during their work. Following the group work, each group presented their analysis and approach to the conflict to other participants and experts. Despite the limited time frame of the group work, the participants managed to delve into the conflict comprehensively and diversely. In addition to the components of the PACD model, the analyses included numerous cross-cutting themes, such as women’s role and organized crime in Sudan. The analyses generated discussions of high quality both between the participants and between the participants and experts.
