Delegates at the Global Youth Summit on the Women, Youth, Peace and Security agendas in Kinshasa delivered a unified demand for young people and women to transition from passive conflict victims into institutional leaders who actively formulate, decide, and execute peace and security policies.
Organized on September 3–4, 2026, by the Global Youth Synergy for Peacebuilding and Security (GYSPS), the summit brought together delegates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, the Central African Republic, and the Republic of Congo to align grassroots peace initiatives with UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 2250.
The call for structural inclusion comes as the DRC faces escalating security pressures, particularly across its eastern provinces where armed violence has left an estimated 18.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance this year. Addressing the assembly, Professor Alphonse Ntumba Luaba of the National Oversight Mechanism for the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement, alongside MONUSCO representatives, urged youth leaders to move beyond symbolic forum attendance and actively influence public policy. Highlighted by practitioners like Sarah Ntambwe of Change Your World—who supports the reintegration of former combatants in North Kivu—the summit underscored that establishing sustainable regional stability requires embedding young leaders and women directly within governance frameworks, community cohesion programs, and formal peace negotiations across Africa.
TE/lb/abj/APA