Makerere University Rotary Peace Center

Economic exclusion is one of the most reliable pathways to conflict. When young people have no productive outlet, no land, no skills, and no stake in the stability of their community, the conditions for tension multiply.

Hendoka Essome Joel, a Cohort 9 Rotary Peace Fellow from the Makerere University Rotary Peace Center, addressed that reality directly through his Social Change Initiative, Sustainable Agricultural Empowerment of Cameroonian Youths to Foster Positive Peace, which is built on a straightforward premise: a young person with practical skills, a productive livelihood, and economic agency has both the means and the motivation to invest in peace.

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NOTES FROM RPC FELLOWS - JOEL Joel, a Peace Fellow from the Makerere University Rotary Peace Cent...

Peace is built in classrooms, playgrounds, and community centres where young people learn to coexist despite their differences.

Makerere University Cohort 6 Rotary Peace Fellow Julius Meleng Ntang is proving that every day in Cameroon.

As Senior Programs Manager at Itaka Escolapios Foundation in Central Africa, Julius is leading two flagship initiatives that are turning schools into centres of dialogue, inclusion, and reconciliation.

The first, Building Peace Together: From the Chalkboard to the Community, is active across five regions of Cameroon, reaching 25 primary and secondary schools and 5,000 direct beneficiaries. Students become peace ambassadors. Teachers become dialogue facilitators. Parents become partners. The peace learned at school becomes the peace lived in the community.

The second, Arts for Peace, reaches 2,800 beneficiaries across four schools in three regions. Through drawing, painting, music, drama, dance, and poetry, young people are given a safe space to reflect on conflict, celebrate diversity, and imagine a different future before they are able to build it.

Together, these two initiatives have reached 29 schools and 7,800 direct beneficiaries across Cameroon.

Read More: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-dag-hammarskj%C3%B6ld-lecture-hall-makerere-cameroon-julius-meleng-sqw2f/

Young people around the world grow up in different realities. Different economies. Different systems. Different struggles.

But the aspirations stay the same. Dignity. Education. A voice in decisions that shape their future.

This International Youth Day, we celebrate the Peace Fellows at Makerere University Rotary Peace Center who carry that aspiration into practice. From community dialogue to conflict resolution, they prove peacebuilding is not a distant idea. It is a daily commitment made by young leaders across contexts.

Common ground starts with listening across difference.

Happy International Youth Day to every young peacebuilder doing the work, wherever you are.

Youth governance is a present responsibility.

On August 1, 2026, Cohort 9 Rotary Peace Fellow Ekah Robert stepped into that responsibility as Moderator of the panel discussion on The Role of Youth in Local Governance and Community Development, during the Official Opening Ceremony of the Map4Change Fellowship in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Organised by AYSA Africa and hosted at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Cameroon auditorium in Bastos, the event brought together practitioners, institutional leaders, and young people committed to strengthening youth participation in governance and community development. Panelists including Mado Njeh, Eric Kombey, Rigobert Kenmogne and Joseph André Badjang Ngue shared practical insights drawn from their own work in this space.

The event drew support from a wide range of partners including the Cameroonian Ministry of Youth and Civic Education, World Bank Africa, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Cameroon and Cameroon Youth Awards, reflecting the seriousness with which youth leadership in governance is being taken across the continent.

Congratulations, Ekah.

We end the month of July by spotlighting the work of Magenta Girls Initiative.

The Magenta Girls Initiative launched community dialogues in Bombo Sub-county, Hoima, creating a safe space for open conversations on the drivers of gender-based violence.

Breaking the silence is the first step toward safer homes and stronger communities.

1️⃣ Community members identified key factors fuelling GBV in their area:

2️⃣ Neglect of family responsibilities

3️⃣ Financial conflicts between couples

4️⃣ Lack of accountability over household income

5️⃣ Poor communication within relationships

One concern came up repeatedly. Men sell agricultural produce but fail to account for how the income gets used. This gap breaks trust and fuels conflict at home.

Economic transparency and joint decision-making build stronger families. When couples make financial decisions together, they reduce conflict and build the trust that safer homes need.

Preventing GBV starts with addressing harmful behaviours and promoting shared responsibility for the family's well-being.

Magenta Girls Initiative (MGI) is a women-led non-profit organization formed by two Makerere University Cohort 2 Rotary Peace Fellows, Jennifer Montgomery and Gorett Komurembe.

Read more about MGI's work: https://magentagirlsinitiative.org/our-work/

Last week, representing the Zimbabwe Youth Biodiversity Network as a Steering Committee Member for Research and Policy, Tapiwa Chimbadzwa Prosper, a Cohort 10 Rotary Peace Fellow at the Makerere University Rotary Peace Center, attended the Annual Convention on the Future for Community Based Natural Resources Management in Zimbabwe, hosted by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation in partnership with WWF Zimbabwe, Maliasili, the Forestry Commission Zimbabwe, and the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Climate.

At the heart of their work is a truth that too many conservation frameworks ignore: communities living alongside wildlife bear the heaviest burdens of coexistence, yet they are consistently sidelined in the policies designed to manage it.

At the convention, our fellow contributed directly to developing the guiding framework for Zimbabwe's CBNRM strategy, specifically pushing to embed youth perspectives from the foundation of that framework. Not as a symbolic gesture. As a structural necessity for long-term sustainability.

Digital rights should be a peacebuilding priority.

Peacebuilding has traditionally focused on preventing violent conflict, strengthening dialogue, promoting reconciliation, and rebuilding institutions. However, the digital age has fundamentally transformed the environments in which conflicts emerge and societies interact.

Read; https://bit.ly/4yzlF6F

Makerere University Cohort 6 Rotary Peace Fellow, Ntang Julius Meleng, offers an evidence-based reflection on how digital rights, youth participation, and peacebuilding intersect to shape more inclusive and democratic societies.