United Network of Young Peacebuilders
PeaceNexus supports a global youth-led peacebuilding network to sustain growth, strengthen membership engagement and ensure financial sustainability.
The Partner
The United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) is a global network of youth-led peacebuilding organisations. With 100 member organisations in over 50 countries, UNOY was one of the key players in the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 that promotes youth participation in peace and security.
UNOY seeks to empower young people building peace. It serves its members by building capacity, facilitating collaborations, and advocating to bring down structural barriers to youth participation. It has positioned itself as the bridge between grassroots organisations and the international peacebuilding community, channelling local youth-led peacebuilding to regional and global levels.
Our Support
In 2016, PeaceNexus selected UNOY through its Call for Proposals due to its great potential, and its complementary role to the UN Peacebuilding Support Office which we also support on their youth focus.
After gaining recognition of the contribution of youth to peacebuilding and peace processes, UNOY needed to shift its focus away from global advocacy and onto network governance. They asked for our help in adapting their internal structure to better support their members, as the new policy commitments translated into opportunities but were hard to access for the mostly volunteer-based, social movement-like member organisations. With UNOY’s secretariat limited resources and capacity, the challenge was to set realistic expectations and ensure that the new structure would be both adaptable to regional contexts, and financially sustainable.
In the first phase of support, PeaceNexus helped UNOY to:
- Conduct a consultation process with its members to ensure that their needs are met in the new structure.
- Implement their recommendations to appoint volunteer regional coordinators, to mobilise members and increase UNOY’s regional visibility.
Our second phase of support focused on ensuring the sustainability of UNOY’s operations with:
- Mapping current and potential donors to develop targeted fundraising strategies.
- Developing a communication strategy to help UNOY articulate its new role to donors and other stakeholders.
- Reviewing and strengthening fundraising and communication tools and processes.
- Reviewing UNOY’s governance and internal structure, to clarify roles and prepare the network for organisational growth.
The Results
UNOY appointed regional coordinators in West & Central Africa, Asia, and the Southern & Eastern African region. Additional regions, starting with MENA, will be appointing coordinators in 2019.
UNOY members report positive effects of this new structure, citing more visibility and new partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region. Other benefits include better collaboration among members, in particular in Africa with the submission of joint funding proposals and collective advocacy efforts, as well as a stronger sense of community and belonging across the network.
In terms of organisational sustainability, UNOY has now secured a 3-year institutional grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
