Members of the Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad. Credit: CCJPS
Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad
Mobilizing a generation for peace
"There is no lasting peace in Colombia without a seat at the table for the generation that grew up during the conflict." - Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad
The Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad or the Colombian Coalition on Youth Peace and Security is a national coalition of 75+ youth-led organizations working across Colombia.
Founded in 2024 with just two organizations, it has grown into the network behind Colombia's National Action Plan on Youth, Peace and Security, currently coordinated by Fundaci¨®n BogotArt and Fundaci¨®n Latir.
Turning exclusion into policy
Colombia's National Action Plan on Youth, Peace and Security is the 11th of its kind in the world under Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Security Council Resolution 2250, and the first in the Americas. It was co-written using evidence gathered directly by young people, and was the first to explicitly reference the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Where earlier plans treated youth as beneficiaries to be consulted, Colombia's plan was built with young people setting its terms.
Members of the Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad. Credit: CCJPS
Bringing evidence to meaningful change
The Coalition doesn't convene the International Cooperation Roundtable on Youth, but it's the group donors turn to. It briefs the Roundtable's 20+ bilateral and multilateral donors, bringing evidence and young people's lived experience to guide what a youth, peace and security agenda should actually fund.
Building a network that lasts
¡°When young people write the policy, peace stops being promised and starts being built.¡± - Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad
What started as two organizations in 2024 is now a coalition of 75+ groups spanning Colombia's regions, from Choc¨®, Cauca and Meta to Norte de Santander and San Andr¨¦s. Growth like that doesn't happen through funding alone. It happens through trust, built organization by organization, over years.
A letter from the future
For the 2025 launch of its report ¡®Agenda de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad en Colombia: El Camino hacia una construcci¨®n de Paz Sostenible¡¯, the Coalition wrote itself a letter from the year 2040, imagining what the coalition's legacy will look like fifteen years on:
"Ya no somos 'el futuro' que otros promet¨ªan: somos el pilar vivo de la paz, el puente entre el legado de quienes nos antecedieron y la infancia que ahora crece aprendiendo a ser garante de una paz que alguna vez pareci¨® imposible."
"We are no longer 'the future' that others promised: we are the living pillar of peace, the bridge between the legacy of those who came before us and the children now growing up learning to be guarantors of a peace that once seemed impossible."
¡ª Carta Generaci¨®n 2040 (Generation 2040 letter), Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad
Members of the Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad. Credit: CCJPS
Why it matters
Youth, peace and security work often gets treated as consultation: young people invited to speak, rarely invited to draft. The Coalition built the infrastructure to change that in Colombia, turning a two-organization idea into a national coalition with a policy record behind it.
¡°Colombia's story has no shortage of chapters written in war. This is the generation that picked up the pen and started writing one about peace.¡± - Coalici¨®n Colombiana de Juventudes, Paz y Seguridad