In its resolution A/RES/79/1 on the Pact for the Future, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to carry out the second independent progress study on youth’s positive contribution to peace processes and conflict resolution. The report will be submitted to Member States by the end of the eightieth session of the General Assembly.

The request follows Security Council resolution 2250 (2015) adopted almost ten years ago. The resolution mandated the development of the first independent progress study, entitled The Missing Peace and published in 2018. Building on this work, the second independent progress study will serve as a critical input to advancing the youth, peace and security agenda within the multilateral system.

Ms, Nanjala Nyabola (Kenya) was selected to lead the drafting process of the report. She is a writer, researcher and policy expert based in Nairobi, Kenya, with extensive expertise on youth engagement, technology, social change and digital rights. She has held fellowships and research roles with the Oxford Internet Institute, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Lab, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), NYU’s Centre on International Cooperation, and Strathmore University’s CIPIT. She studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, as well as at the University of Birmingham and Harvard Law School. Her writings appear in The Nation, Al Jazeera, and The Boston Review.

Ms. Nyabola will work in close coordination with the United Nations Joint Secretariat on youth, peace and Security, composed of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations Youth Office.