For the past year and a half, I have coordinated CMC Finland’s work on the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda. The most visible part of this work is the advancement of the national action plan for UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security, in which CMC is designated as one of the responsible actors. The first national action plan finished at the end of 2024, and the second will be published soon. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland coordinates both the preparation and monitoring of the implementation of the action plan. 

I represent CMC in the action plan’s monitoring group, which also participated in drafting the new action plan. In Finland, the group includes representatives from ministries, youth organisations, and civil society. The collaborative nature of the national action plan is a strength for Finland and serves as a model for many other countries. 

CMC has supported the implementation of the 2021-2024 action plan in various ways. The YPS agenda has been integrated as a cross-cutting theme in CMC’s Basic Course on Civilian Crisis Management and included in other courses as well. CMC staff are regularly invited as guest lecturers at universities and training programs. In recent years, lectures have been held at the National Defence University’s crisis management exercise, the SAFER master’s program at Tampere University, and the Civic Knowledge course at Päivölä Institute. CMC staff also mentor young professionals pursuing careers in peacebuilding through mentoring program of the Wider Security Network. Additionally, CMC supports the Peace Ambassador Academy for youth by serving as one of its partner organisations. Our office also hosts groups of young people and students, to whom we present our work. In spring 2024, we organised a conflict analysis workshop for youth and students as part of the Crisis Management Now event. 

However, one challenge for CMC is engaging and hearing young people in domestic tasks. A good example of progress in this area is the external steering group guiding CMC’s sustainability work, which includes a member from the Finnish Youth Agenda 2030 group. 

Internationally, I have collaborated on YPS with our sister organisations, the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) in Sweden and the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) in Germany. For example, earlier this year we organised a virtual roundtable discussion for experts deployed to civilian crisis management missions who work on or are interested in the YPS agenda. Since the topic is still relatively new in the field of civilian crisis management, sharing experiences and best practices and networking were valuable for participants. I am also a member of the EU YPS Coalition, which aims to promote the YPS agenda at the EU level. The coalition is an informal group consisting of young peacebuilders, youth organisations, international organisations, EU member states, and EU institutions. The YPS agenda is not yet fully integrated into the EU’s civilian crisis management structures, which is why I find it important to work on this theme at the EU level. For instance, as long as the YPS agenda is not mentioned in the mandates or operation plans of civilian crisis management operations, the operations may not officially promote the agenda. 

In my view, one of the most important aspects of advancing the YPS agenda in CMC’s work is ensuring that the experts we deploy to civilian crisis management missions are aware of the YPS agenda and know how to engage with or include young people in the mission area when needed. In practice, missions already collaborate with local youth organisations and young people, engage in dialogue with local youth during monitoring operations, and organise youth-focused events. Although EU civilian crisis management operations do not yet have dedicated YPS experts or advisors, progress has been made at the EU level by launching a pilot program for young experts. This helps bring younger professionals into the missions. 

Our work on the YPS agenda has gradually increased. For example, earlier this year we published a Policy Brief on the topic. Although we have communicated more about the agenda this year—including through this concluding post in the YPS blog series—our work is far from over. 

Nanna Hallikainen 
The author works as a Research and Development Coordinator at CMC Finland and coordinates CMC’s Youth, Peace and Security work.