05/01/2026
Youth Peacebuilders Tackle Climate, Justice, and Leadership at 2025 Youth Peace Conference
Davao City — December 15, 2025
Amid the cool greenery of Eden Nature Park and Resort, nearly 200 young peacebuilders from across the country gathered for the 2025 Youth Peace Conference: Empowering the Future, a three-day convergence that affirmed one powerful message: peacebuilding is holistic—rooted in justice, leadership, care for people, and care for the planet.
Held from December 13 to 15, 2025, the conference brought together 193 youth leaders under the banner of the Generation Peace Youth Network (GenPeace), in partnership with MSU Maguindanao – Institute of Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM) and the OPAPRU–MNLF Peace Program Office. Through plenary discussions, interactive sessions, and reflective activities, participants were challenged to see themselves not just as beneficiaries of peace, but as active agents of change.
A Broad Peace Agenda for a Complex World
The conference addressed a wide range of interrelated themes critical to peace and development today. Overall, the topics discussed included:
1. Youth Leadership and Active Citizenship: Shaping a Better Future
2. Transitional Justice: Facing the Past, Building Peace
3. Youth and Good Governance: Building Accountability Together
4. Humanitarian Disarmament: Protecting Communities, Empowering Youth
5. Peace Education: Building a Culture of Understanding
6. Understanding Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law
7. Gender Sensitivity: Creating Fair and Inclusive Spaces for All
8. Empowering Youth and Women for Leadership and Peace
9. Climate and Sustainability
10. Media Literacy: Helping Youth Share Truth and Think Critically
Together, these sessions emphasized that peace is multidimensional—requiring ethical leadership, inclusive governance, historical reckoning, respect for human rights, gender justice, environmental sustainability, and responsible use of media.
Confronting the Triple Planetary Crisis
One of the highlights of the conference was the in-depth discussion on Climate and Sustainability, framed around the Triple Planetary Crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution—particularly plastic pollution.
In Session 1: Understanding the Triple Planetary Crisis, participants explored the scientific foundations of environmental change, including the greenhouse effect, carbon footprint, and global warming. Special emphasis was placed on the Philippine context, recognizing the country’s vulnerability to climate-related disasters and environmental degradation.
Discussions and activities encouraged participants to examine how human actions—both individual and systemic—contribute to these crises, and how their impacts disproportionately affect marginalized and vulnerable communities.
Ethics, Faith, and Human Responsibility
Session 2: Human Impact and Ethical Responsibility expanded the conversation beyond science and policy. It examined the root causes of ecological and social crises, such as overconsumption, unsustainable economic models, weak governance, cultural attitudes, and social inequality.
Participants engaged with ethical perspectives from Christianity, Islam, other world religions, indigenous belief systems, and secular humanism, discovering a shared moral call to protect life, creation, and future generations. The session reinforced that environmental protection and peacebuilding are not only political or technical concerns—but deeply moral and spiritual responsibilities.
Pathways Toward Sustainability and Regeneration
In Session 3: Sustainable and Regenerative Practices, participants were introduced to concrete solutions that link peace with ecological resilience. Topics included renewable energy, waste reduction and circular practices, eco-friendly and regenerative food systems, mindful consumption, ecosystem restoration, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A recurring message resonated strongly: small daily actions matter. Individual choices, when multiplied through communities and sustained over time, can lead to meaningful and lasting change.
Commitment, Reflection, and Hope
The conference concluded with a deeply symbolic Commitment and Reflection Session. Participants wrote personal commitments to the environment and society on flower-shaped papers, offered prayers, and placed them in water—watching the flowers slowly unfold.
The ritual served as a powerful reminder that transformation begins within and grows through intentional action, care, and perseverance.
Youth as Builders of Peace Today
“I was honored to be one of the facilitators at the 2025 Youth Peace Conference,” shared Hector Kawig, one of the session facilitators. “In the session ‘Climate, Care, and Action,’ we reflected on the deep connection between peacebuilding, environmental stewardship, and the responsibility of youth to act—here and now.”
As the conference closed, one truth stood clear: peace is not built overnight. It is nurtured through dialogue, justice, care for people and the planet, and courageous youth leadership. The energy, insights, and commitments shared by the participants affirmed that young people are not merely leaders of tomorrow—but leaders of today.
Together, the youth peacebuilders left Davao City carrying renewed purpose—continuing the journey toward a just, inclusive, and sustainable peace.
