Leaders pour la paix

Donia KAOUACH

Director General of Leaders for Peace

After over two years of war in Ukraine, the resurgence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the ongoing war in Congo with no resolution in sight, current events bear witness to the jeopardization of global stability. This situation is increasingly yielding to anger, withdrawal, and societal radicalization. These are critical challenges for global governance, which strives to reinvent itself. 

 

How can one seriously envision a world at peace if the conditions for good governance are not met? Who will provide the necessary responses to the myriad climatic, economic, digital, and health challenges facing younger generations? 

 

In response to this challenge, Leaders for Peace has embraced three missions: to serve as both a think and do tank, be a relay for stakeholders on the field and lead a peace education project.

 

As a think and do tank, Leaders for Peace actively engages in discussions on global governance through high-level meetings, conferences, symposiums… We also produce an annual report highlighting the major governance challenges identified throughout the year, which is presented to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. 

 

Beyond being a think and do tank, Leaders for Peace also serves as a relay for stakeholders on the field, supporting their missions, and, most importantly, shedding light on forgotten conflicts and those neglected by public opinion and governments. We are committed to remaining mobilized and mobilizing others in these grave yet often overlooked situations. 

 

Lastly, and this is the heart of our mission, Leaders for Peace champions an educational project to support the emergence of the good governance of tomorrow. As a Tunisian myself, having grown up in Tunisia before pursuing studies in London and Paris, I witnessed helplessly the collapse of the Arab Spring due to the absence of an alternative governance, young, educated, and motivated. 

 

So what is to be done? Where does one begin to tackle the problem in an attempt to shift paradigms and create conditions for stability? Our answer at Leaders for Peace was education. And thus, our last founding mission emerged: peace education. 

There are more conflicts occurring today than at any time since the Second World War. Numerous children’s lives are being disrupted by these conflicts and, too often, the long-term education of these children is seldom considered, with the emphasis often placed on short-term emergency assistance, as education frequently ranks lower in priority compared to water, sanitation, and shelter.

During prolonged conflicts, a child’s chance to acquire crucial foundational knowledge and essential skills diminishes, while it is acknowledged that nations are less likely to experience violent conflict if their populations have higher levels of education. This is the baseline spirit of our Itinerant Peace Universities. 

 

For a week, we go to a university with our partners—Sciences Po, the University of Geneva, Pontifical Lateran University…—and deliver intensive training on major issues of global governance, from sustainable development to gender equality, conflict mediation, and artificial intelligence, with the participation of professors, thinkers, entrepreneurs… 

 

Because we have realized that a renewed governance, more inclusive, just, and equitable, will only emerge with inspired, equipped and motivated young leaders, we have committed ourselves to providing them with all the necessary tools to peacefully and justly lead future societies. A short-term project with a long-term impact: that is what the Itinerant Universities aim to be.

 

Collectively, we must stand against the primary enemy of peace: the dangerous pathology of indifference and the trivialization of violence at all levels. By offering reflection, an educational project, and shedding light on forgotten conflicts and failures of global governance, Leaders for Peace advocates for a renewed multilateralism, more inclusive, effective, and adapted to the new threats our world is facing.