Youth Civic Engagement and Local Peacebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects and Challenges for Community Development

This book investigates the ways in which young people engage with and contribute to civil society, community development, and local peacebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Youth engagement and contribution to civil society and local peacebuilding can play a crucial role in development; however, there is often a lack of effective engagement, policies, and opportunities for young people in policy and practice. This book analyses their experiences of civic engagement and community participation and the challenges they face, across diverse areas including youth empowerment, freedom of expression, mobilization, ideologies, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding. Drawing on cases from Yemen, Syria, Iran, Morocco and the Palestinian Territories, this book offers new insights on how youth not only are shaped by, but also react to policies, conflict, constraints, and challenges.

The insights drawn from this interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to researchers of civil society, youth, peacebuilding, and development, as well as to policymakers, donors, and NGO staff.

Ibrahim Natil is a Research Fellow at Institute of International Conflict Resolution and Re-construction (IICRR) and teaches at Dublin City University, Ireland. He is the Co-convenor of NGOs in Development Study Group, DSA-UK, and winner of the Robert Chamber Best Overall Paper, selected by DSA Ireland (2017). He is the founder of the Society Voice Foundation for Community Work.