Peace and Disarmament Youth Volunteers present indicators to measure SDG 16

The United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme have been hosting a regional project entitled Youth Volunteerism for Peacebuilding and Disarmament: Youth Measuring Community Security Through Participatory Indicators. Over the course of the project, young leaders and those directly or indirectly affected by the phenomenon of violence were trained, with the aim of developing indicators that can measure Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
On the 24th November, project volunteers submitted the indicators to local authorities in the city of Trujillo in a private ceremony at the Casa de la Identidad located in the historic centre of Trujillo. These were the very volunteers who made a series of presentations, unveiling the 32 indicators that they had developed during the six-month project. The volunteers analyzed them, outlining their relevance, and indicated that sources of information were available from the governing bodies. Throughout the project, the volunteer leaders participated in various work sessions where they learnt, through an informal educational approach, about concepts related to human security and armed violence. The volunteers created participatory indicators to measure insecurity in their communities, and they shared their knowledge and experiences in their towns through several activities in celebration of International Youth Day and International Day of Peace.
Further, during the ceremony, there was an exhibition of one of the main outreach activities of the Youth for Peace Festival project, which was hosted with the support of the Trujillo Municipality. One of the activities included in the packed schedule was the reinterpretation of peace and disarmament based on the prize-winning designs of the poster contest organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA).
Finally, the submission of indicators was one of two ceremonies that took place as part of the closure of the project, where the volunteers were also able to share their testimonies. The day culminated in a moving awards ceremony where certificates were awarded to the young volunteers in recognition of the role they played in the training sessions, as well as in the outreach activities and validation workshops.