EYPD

As we welcome the Ethiopian New Year 2019, Ethiopian Youth for Peace and Development (EYPD) reflects with deep gratitude on our journey over the past year.

Expanding our reach and deepening our impact has only been possible through the unwavering support of our institutional partners, allies, and donors who share our vision.

Our core conviction remains unchanged: sustainable peace and community resilience can only be achieved when we work for the youth and with the youth. Moving young people from the margins to the center of development and peacebuilding is the heart of our mission.

To every partner who has stood alongside us, believed in our grassroots approach, and co-designed localized solutions-thank you.

As we step into this fresh chapter, we look forward to deepening our collaboration, advancing youth engagement, driving lasting peace and sustainable development across Ethiopia.

Most people who share something false aren't trying to deceive anyone. They believed it.

Eight moves separate a conversation that works from one that makes everyone defensive. None of them require being right first. Just knowing where to start.

Swipe through, then tell us: which one do you usually skip?

Ask first, correct second.

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 is implemented by Ethiopian Youth for Peace and Development, with the support of the Life & Peace Institute, under the Sowing the Seeds of Peace in Ethiopia programme funded by Sida.

Earlier today, EYPD has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding with ISOKO Partners for Peace and Gender Equality inc, an international organization based in the USA 🇺🇸.

Too often, the work of changing a system falls to the people that system already failed. ISOKO begins somewhere else. Its programmes are built on the conviction that peace and gender equality hold only when women and men carry them together. ISOKO works with women's and youth groups, civil society, UN agencies and governments towards an Africa that is prosperous and free from sexual and gender-based violence.

We recognise that conviction, because our own programmes have taught us the same lesson. Change lasts in a community when men are present for it, taking responsibility alongside the women who have been doing the work all along.

Under this agreement, the two organisations will work together on peacebuilding and social cohesion, the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence, economic opportunity for young people in underserved and displacement-affected communities, and policy advocacy from national platforms to continental and global ones.

Partnership is one of EYPD's core values. Here it means choosing a partner who understands that young people build peace long before anyone thinks to count them.

Most misinformation is not sophisticated. It just moves faster than we look.

Five things gave this post away. None of them required training, an app, or a fact-checker. Just knowing what to look for.

Swipe through, then tell us: how many did you catch before you read the answers?

Verify, then share.

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 is implemented by Ethiopian Youth for Peace and Development, with the support of the Life & Peace Institute, under the Sowing the Seeds of Peace in Ethiopia programme funded by Sida.

Swipe to see the rest of the contents

Ethiopian Youth for Peace and Development, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Afar Youth Empowerment and Development Organization, establishing a two-year framework for joint work on youth participation, peacebuilding, and community-led development in Afar.

The signing is the smallest part of this.

Partnership documents are easy to sign and easy to shelve. This one is meant to be used: joint youth dialogue platforms, shared technical support and mentorship, and advocacy that carries the priorities of young people in Afar into national conversations.

We entered this agreement because Afar Youth Empowerment and Development Organization, understands its communities and its context in a way no external actor can replicate. Locally led work is not a gesture we extend to local organisations. It is what makes the work hold after a project cycle ends.

This partnership will be measured by what we do together over the next two years, not by the document we signed.

Earlier today, at the African Union Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, we had the honour of meeting H.E. Amb. Liberata Mulamula, 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 of the African Union Commission on Women, Peace and Security and her colleagues at her office.

Together with our colleague and partner Mr. Christian Ngendahimana, founder and Executive Director of the ISOKO Partners for Peace and Gender Equality Inc., our discussion focused on Women, Peace and Security and Youth, Peace and Security, and on why closer collaboration between the two agendas is both essential and timely.

The two are too often pursued in parallel rather than together. Bringing them into one conversation strengthens coordination, opens space for shared learning between women-led and youth-led organisations, and keeps the priorities of communities visible where decisions are made.

Grateful to the Special Envoy for her time and for the insights she shared. There is real ground here to build on.

Ethiopian Youth for Peace and Development (EYPD) is pleased to announce a new partnership with Welthungerhilfe (WHH) under the EU-funded Civil Society Fund Plus Capacity Development Program for Local and Grassroots Civil Society Organizations (CDP-Lg CSOs).

Through this collaboration, EYPD will implement the initiative “From Youth Voice to Policy Influence.” Over the coming months, we will work with young leaders and youth-led organizations to advance priority recommendations from the Addis Declaration through a structured process of evidence generation, capacity building, dialogue, and documented institutional follow-up.

Young people in Ethiopia are already actively participating in civic and policy spaces. This initiative seeks to go a step further by helping ensure that their engagement contributes to decision-making and is followed through with meaningful action.

We look forward to the work ahead and to our collaboration with Welthungerhilfe in strengthening meaningful youth participation and policy engagement.

On September 1, 2026, we convened the first Community Dialogue Forum under our Youth for Peace project in Addis Ababa.

Hate speech and false information spread online, but the harm lands offline. So we brought the institutions that hold communities together into one room: religious leaders, traditional elders and Aba Gada representatives, Edir leaders, government, civil society, and young peace champions.

The day worked through how communities verify a claim before repeating it, how a warning seen online reaches someone offline in time to matter, and how this work is anchored in institutions that already exist. Stakeholders closed by making commitments within their own structures, which we will review when the forum next convenes.

Our projects have end dates. Edir, the Aba Gada system, the mosque and the church do not.

Youth for Peace project is Implemented by Ethiopian Youth for Peace and Development in partnership with Life & Peace Institute, under the Sowing the seeds of Peace in Ethiopia program funded by Sida.

EYPD extends warm wishes to everyone celebrating Mawlid Al-Nabi.

May this special occasion be marked by peace, compassion, unity, and joy, bringing communities closer together.