Transformational Leadership and Peaceful Engagement for the Vulnerable Youth

of Marawi

Youth is commonly defined as the period of transition from the dependence of

childhood to adulthood’s independence. This varies from country to country and even
from one institution to another. The United Nations, for statistical purposes, defines
those persons between the age of 15 and 24 as youth without prejudice to other
definitions by the Member States. The African Youth Charter defines youth between the
age of 15 to 35 years old. In the Philippines, Republic Act No. 8044, namely, the Youth
in Nation-Building Act, defined Filipino youth as those with age 15 to 35 years old. The
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has a broader
definition of youth, which provides “Youth shall refer to a critical period in person’s
growth and development from the onset of adolescence towards the peak of a mature,
self-reliant, and responsible adulthood comprising the considerable sector of the
population from the age of fifteen (15) to forty (40) years.”

In today’s world the youth is facing the most of hardships and lack of
belongingness within the society. Youth in the Philippines constitute a big portion of the
population, yet it remains the most subjugated and marginalized. The problematic
circumstances that young people face because of limited opportunities for education
and training, viable employment and health and social services, and because of a
growing incidence of substance abuse and juvenile delinquency is deteriorating the
chance of Philippines’ quest for achieving the status of a developed Nation. Their
imagination, ideals, considerable energies, and vision are essential for the continuing
development of the societies in which they live.
 Conceptual Framework that Drives Violent Extremism

Violent extremism is quite pronounced in the Bangsamoro. All the five provinces
(i.e., Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi) is afflicted by it to
certain degree. The affiliation among violent extremist groups operating in the BARMM
is quite loose. Previously, there is no binding alliance among groups operating in the
island provinces of BASULTA (i.e., Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi) with those from Lanao
del Sur and Maguindanao. For example, Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) hardly has any
presence in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, nor does Maute-ISIS Group, Ansar
Khalifa Philippines, and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter have any influence in
BASULTA. This situation had changed when different groups pledged allegiance to
ISIS in the Middle East and became affiliates. Thus, it could be argued that ISIS
international becomes a unifying factor in putting together violent extremists from
different areas of the Bangsamoro for the common objectives of establishing a territory
of the Islamic State Caliphate in Marawi City.

Growth in violent extremism among the youth, as shown in Figure 1, can be

attributed to the following drivers: (1) poverty and lack of opportunities; (2)
marginalization and social exclusion; (3) historical injustices felt by the families of the
youth; (4) poor social capital within the community; (5) lack of social cohesion; (6) poor
education and lack of schooling; (7) conflicts and rido in the community; (8) poor
governance and absent leadership of local executives in the community; and (9) failure
to counter false narratives and wrong teaching about Islam. These drivers interact and
reinforce each other that it is quite difficult to untangle the impact of any single—further,
the effects of these drivers on an individual vary from person to person. For example, a
person may join a violent extremist group to seek protection from their armed rival
because they are currently having a rido. Another person may be pulled to join a violent
extremist group due to poverty and promises of financial support. In other words, we
may be able to explain the drivers of violent extremism, but it will be difficult to measure
how a specific individual is affected by each of the drivers.

The youth are frequently ‘othered’ in the discourse on conflict. They are looked at
as potentially dangerous ‘subjects’ and are often regarded as ‘a problem’. Often, male
youths are observed as the main actors of criminal and used as tools in political
violence. Several assumptions about the role, position, and contribution of youths
appear to plague thinking among local and national elites driving recovery efforts within
societies in transition. Most policy pronouncements or security-related programs in post-
conflict and fragile contexts reflect polarized discourse.

Youth on one hand are viewed as vulnerable, powerless and in need of

protection. On the other, they are feared as dangerous, violent, apathetic and as threats
to security. Youths are subjected to stereotypical images of being angry, drugged and
violent and as threat, especially those who participated in armed conflict as combatants.
 Recent literature on youth in post-conflict societies indicates a shift in thinking
about youth. It underlines the agency perspective and acknowledges the importance of
engaging the youth in peacebuilding and introducing to the concept of violent extremism
to capacitate them in countering or preventing it.

Youth as peacebuilders

The positioning of youth in society has a bearing on their leadership potential and
their possible role in peacebuilding. The tension between young and old has been one
of the key features of inter-generational shifts pertaining to the control over power,
resources, and people.

The tension lies in the profound impatience of youth, their desire to strive for
more, their willingness to be seen as responsible and capable, and the structural
barriers to their social mobility. Independence from others and responsibility for others,
such as taking care of a family or household, can be seen as defining markers of pre-
requisites of social adulthood. In this sense, dependency, exclusion, and social or
political marginalization become prominent sources of social contest. At the same time,
it should be recognized that such societal dynamics, challenges and opportunities vary
across different cultural contexts.

Within the challenging fluidity of post-conflict environments, which are nothing but
contexts where the politics of war continue through different means, the young would
need to show great ‘navigational skills’ to respond to such power dynamics. Their social,
political and economic navigation is about their identity transformation as well as the
negotiation or re-negotiation of societal norms, values and structures so that they can
find a voice and place in the emerging structures of post-conflict environments.

What needs to be underlined is that youth should be conceptualized and studied

as agents of positive peace in terms of addressing not only the challenges of physical
violence, but also the challenges of structural and cultural violence, and the broader
social change processes to transform violent, oppressive and hierarchical structures, as
well as behavior, relationships and attitudes into more participatory and inclusive ones.
 The key point to remember is that without recognizing youths as political actors,
their trajectories in peacebuilding would likely be ignored, wasted and at best, under-
utilized. To recognize their agency as a political actor in peacebuilding, there needs to
be a comprehensive understanding of their conflict trajectories, and this is particularly
important for those young people who have taken direct participation in an armed
conflict as combatants.

To understand the engagement of youth in peacebuilding, first of all, the youth

mobilization and reintegration factors such as who they are, what they did before the
conflict, how they were recruited, what specific fighting roles they undertook, what they
experienced physically, socio-economically and psychologically, during the armed
conflict, and what ‘home’ context they will be reintegrating into will all be critical for the
youth’s trajectories in peacebuilding.

Second, the involvement of youth in non-violent politics, and from a wider

perspective, the enablement of their political agency in a more positive and peace-
oriented role in post-conflict environments, is likely to depend on how these trajectories
are shaped by the overall political and governance context.

Third, the enablement of youth as an active agent in peacebuilding cannot be

considered without considering such challenges, they tend to face due to the armed
conflict such as the loss of education, a lack of employable skills and the destruction of
a stable family environment. The wider socio-economic needs of youths are often
ignored in post-conflict contexts as they are not seen as a ‘vulnerable’ group.

Fourth, it is important to provide youths with training opportunities to take an

active part in peacebuilding. With their youthful energy and capabilities, and ability of
adaptation to new technological trends, for example, youths could act as mediators,
community mobilisers, humanitarian workers and peace brokers. Like any particular
conflict affected population group, the mobilization of youths’ capacities requires a
targeted and long-term approach.
Activity Design for the Transformational Leadership and Peaceful Engagement for the
Vulnerable Youth of Marawi

Day 1 Opening Program

November 26, 2022 Getting to know Activity
 Tea Party
 Name Game
Expectation Sharing
Leadership Training
 Strategic Communications
 Personality Development
 Team Building Activities
Peaceful Engagements
 Conflict Tree
 Discussion and synthesis
Day 2 Community Resilience
December 3, 2022  PCVE for the youth
Visioning for a Peaceful Community
 Root Causes of Conflict
Building a Culture of Peace
Youth Action
 Project Initiatives
 Reporting and discussion
Networking and Lobbying
Commitment Sharing

Expected outcomes of the training

 To develop awareness and competences (knowledge, skills and attitude) of

participants in peace advocacy, conflict transformation, including a critical
understanding of personal and collective identities and their role in conflicts.
  To share among participants their personal experiences of conflict and violence
and their coping strategies in a positive and safe atmosphere of living and
learning together.
 To learn from existing youth work practices and experiences of young people
working on dialogue and conflict transformation in their communities.
 To motivate and support participants in their role as multipliers and peer leaders
in peace building activities with young people encouraging them to implement
follow-up initiatives.

Finally, in undertaking all of these objectives it is also pivotal to avoid the well-known
cliché of referring to youths as the ‘future leaders’. Leadership should not be considered
as a factor of age and providing appropriate governance contexts would likely enable
young people to flourish as leaders today. In other words, they need to be treated as
leaders today without postponing it to an elusive future whether it is in governance in
general or peacebuilding programs specifically.
Materials Needed for the Transformational Leadership and Peaceful Engagement
for the Vulnerable Youth of Marawi

Particulars Quantity
Bond papers (short) Rim 2
Bond papers (A4) Rim 2
Bond papers (Long) Rim 2
Folders (long) Pcs 100
Folders (short) Pcs 100
Envelopes (long) Pcs 100
Envelopes (short) Pcs 100
Plastic envelopes (long) Pcs 100
Plastic envelopes (short) Pcs 100
Metacards Packs 10
Pentel Pens Packs 5
White Board Markers Packs 5
ID Holder/Name Tag Pcs 100
Kraft papers Pcs 50
Certificate holders Pcs 50
Special papers Packs 25
Colored Bond paper Packs 10
Pens Box 10
Notebooks Pcs 150
Sticker paper Packs 10
Pencils Box 15
Crayons Box 15
Scissors Pcs 10
Staplers Pcs 5