Learning from youth policies in Medellin: Towards a transferability peacebuilding model

• In Event: Education, Culture and Learning in Response to Conflict and Protracted Crisis

Proposal

This paper stems from a British Academy funded study which explores lessons of the peacebuilding process that took place in city of Medellin (Colombia) and analyses transferable traits. Working with the city of Acapulco (Mexico), which currently suffers from criminal and other drug-related violence, we are exploring lived experiences as shaped by this context and questioning what actions young people and community-based practitioners feel may change the current context of conflict.
The study analyses the policies and programs from the last two decades through which Medellin managed to reduce violence and implement an inclusive and lifelong learning strategy for young people. It also explores the current policies and context of Acapulco, discussing with local practitioners the question of who has responsibility in making sense of the conflict and in moving away from it. This is a multidimensional analysis taking lessons from a post-conflict society and integrating these with the current lived realities of those in a conflict area.
Preliminary finding reveal the critical aspects of education and culture, which formed part of Medellin’s most recent administration (2004-2019), that contributed to peacebuilding. These policies actively placed communities and young people as key in forging a positive future through building hubs, providing equipment and subsidizing activities to guarantee the success of the interventions for young people, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The development and appropriation of public spaces for young people through art-based activities and nonformal education have also been characteristic features of the city's overall strategy. In addition to programmes designed to socially integrate armed groups, citizen coexistence training was offered by a range of different local institutions in order to generate trust and confidence among communities and the local government. Finally, promoting Medellin as a “to-visit” place helped to create a positive identity, impacting on the perception of peace amongst its citizen as well as from an outside perspective. In this paper we will explore how community relations changed by placing education and culture at the forefront of the lived experiences of young people and how social responsibility was encouraged as part of the integration and interactions which placed young people at the center of the peacebuilding process. The paper will end with a reference to how these findings will be integrated with those from other research methods (interviews, surveys, and participatory mapping) in order to create a transferability peacebuilding model.

Authors

• Evelyn Arizpe, University of Glasgow

• Sinead Gormally, University of Glasgow