Education for Peace, Resilience Building and the Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE)
Since 2017, the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) has been actively promoting the Transformative Pedagogy Approach for Peace, Resilience Building, Prevention of Violent Extremism, and Learning to Live Together. This innovative pedagogical approach has been successfully implemented across 28 African countries through various project capacities. The overarching goal of the program is to equip education ministry offices, teacher training institutes, and universities with the capacity to deliver high-quality, inclusive, and relevant peace-building education at both the higher education and school level. By improving the knowledge and skills of young people, the program seeks to mitigate conflicts and violence, prevent them from occurring, and promote peacebuilding.
Selected resources
Assessment of IICBA’s experience in the PVE projects: IICBA Study 2024-1.
Interviews with peace educators: IICBA’s interview series
Teacher training guide on peace education:
Transformative Pedagogy for Peacebuilding - A Guide for Teachers (UNESCO IICBA, 2017, English)
Peacebuilding Training Guide for Ethiopia (UNESCO IICBA, 2020, English)
Peacebuilding Training Guide for Ethiopia (UNESCO IICBA, 2022, Afaan-Oromo)
Peacebuilding Training Guide for Ethiopia (UNESCO IICBA, 2022, Amharic)
Peacebuilding Training Guide for Ethiopia (UNESCO IICBA, 2022, Somali)
Transformative Pedagogy: a Teachers’ Guide for Peace and Resilience Building in North Africa (UNESCO IICBA, 2022, English & French)
Youth Guide on Education for Peacebuilding and the Prevention of Violence (UNESCO IICBA, 2022, Arabic, English & French)
Transformative Pedagogy for Learning to Live Together in Southern Africa: A Practical Guide (UNESCO IICBA, 2022, English & Portuguese)
About the Project: Overview
The objective of promoting peace, resilience building, and PVE through Education (PVE-E) is to create a conducive and responsive educational environment that fosters peaceful and resilient communities in the face of complex emergencies. This program comprises four complementary areas of focus. Firstly, capacity building for educators, teachers, and school leaders in primary and secondary schools, universities, and teacher training institutions to develop peacebuilding skills, including Global Citizenship Education (GCED), to prevent violence, violent extremism, genocide, and Atrocity crimes. Secondly, mainstream education for peacebuilding, GCED, and PVE-E into the curriculum, teacher training programs, and higher education courses. Thirdly, establishing national, regional, and continent-wide networks that encourage experiential and good practice learning, to strengthen communities of practice (CoPs) that promote peace, resilience building, GCED, General History of Africa (GHA), and preventing genocide and Atrocity crimes. Lastly, engaging out-of-school youth through community outreach programs led by youth-led organizations and the African Union Youth for Peace Program. These four pillars are supported by the Transformative Pedagogy for Peace, Resilience Building, Prevention of Violent Extremism, and Learning to Live Together approach. This empowering approach equips learners and young people with the skills to respond to injustices, uphold human rights, and promote the rule of law, using the elements of a whole school approach and dialogue.
The program implementation strategy
To promote a peaceful learning environment and address the root causes of violence, IICBA adopted a Transformative Pedagogy approach. This approach encompasses various teaching methods aimed at fostering dialogue, critical reflection, civic rights, non-violent conflict resolution techniques, ethical considerations, gender equality, and other relevant topics. To ensure the success of this intervention, IICBA engaged in consultative meetings with country focal points and stakeholders, taking into account specific regional conflicts and contexts. Regional training was provided for master trainers to support country-level training and the development of action plans based on specific needs. Through trainings and collaborations with the African Union Commission's Youth for Peace Africa Programme (AU-Y4P), youth were empowered and provided with the necessary skills and knowledge to support peacebuilding efforts. Additionally, consultations and experience-sharing opportunities were provided to encourage national-level initiatives and youth-led actions.
Program Countries and Focus Areas
Focus area 1: Capacity development of primary and secondary school teachers, school leaders, and educators in teacher training institutions and universities in education for peace and resilience building, including GCED, GHA, and PVE-E
Educators and teachers from schools, teacher training institutions, and universities are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to educate for peacebuilding, GCED, GHA, PVE-E, and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This comprehensive training includes an examination of conflict, violence, and violent extremism, an exploration of ethical considerations, an in-depth look at transformative pedagogy, and the provision of practical tools for assessing learners' understanding of peacebuilding, resilience, and sustainability concepts and skills.
Focus area 2: Mainstreaming education for peacebuilding into the school curriculum, teacher training programmes, and higher education.
Countries' Ministries of Education and teacher training institutions supported mainstream pedagogies and curricula in the areas of education for peace. Universities empowered to provide context-responsive peace education courses that improve sustainable social change.
Focus area 3: Creation of national, regional, and Africa-wide experience sharing and communities of practice (CoPs) for peacebuilding.
It is imperative to enhance the capabilities of education stakeholders and systems by promoting evidence-sharing, knowledge exchange, and peer learning. This will enable them to effectively facilitate meaningful participation in development, governance, and peace-building processes. To this end, the project aims to bolster Ministry of Education and university partnerships, by encouraging local and international partners to share their experiences. Additionally, a community of practice and partnerships will be established for peace education and research among universities both within and outside the country.
Focus area 4: Community outreach to target out-of-school youth with education for peacebuilding, PVE-E, and ESD.
In this project, effective outreach programs required strategies that involve the establishment of networks of community and youth outreach educators, by utilizing existing structures such as youth groups, the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) schools, and peace clubs through schools and universities. Leveraging Youth Ambassadors at the Regional Economic Community (REC) level under the AU-Y4P program and peace club establishment was the successful approach to this program. Adequate training was provided for peace club members using the IICBA guide for youth on peacebuilding and violence prevention to these endeavors.
Regional and technical partners
Guided by the AU Agenda 2063 and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) Strategic Objective 1 – to revitalize the teaching profession to ensure quality and relevance at all levels of education and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the program will address.
