KHOROG, Tajikistan

The United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) held its second cross-border workshop for young people within the UNRCCA Preventive Diplomacy Academy from 22 to 24 October 2019 in Khorog, capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) of Tajikistan. Young people from neighbouring Afghanistan also participated.

On behalf of Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ms. Natalia Gherman, Mr. Brian Pozun, UNRCCA Political Affairs Officer, opened the workshop together with Mr. Yodgor Fayzov, Governor of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, Mr. Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, Director-General of the Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Badakhshan Province and Mr. Samadkul Goibov from the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe.

The workshop brought together young people from GBAO, Tajikistan, and Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan. Like the first workshop in Taraz, Kazakhstan, participants took part in interactive sessions on preventive diplomacy and the work of UNRCCA, conflict prevention strategies for their daily lives and in their communities, intercultural communication, leadership, as well as the basics of project management. 

The substantive part of the workshop was dedicated to the development of project ideas by participants. These project proposals were meant to generate people-to-people contacts across borders and extend the reach of the UNRCCA Preventive Diplomacy Academy to even more young people in both Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

UNRCCA will support the implementation of two of these projects, one by Tajik young people and one by Afghan young people studying in Khorog. Due to the enthusiasm and motivation of the participants to address pressing problems in the area of peace and security in their communities through their projects, UNRCCA also decided to support an additional project developed by young people in the Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan.

The honoured guests praised the work of the UNRCCA Preventive Diplomacy Academy engaging with youth from border regions on preventive diplomacy and conflict prevention. In his welcoming remarks to participants, GBAO Chairman Mr. Fayzov stressed the importance of working with young people in the area of conflict prevention. “Preventive diplomacy is best to start before the conflict has started", he noted.

Academy participants were active throughout the workshop and their feedback was overwhelmingly positive. They all were extremely grateful for the opportunity to meet and work together with their peers from across the border that allowed them to learn from each other and to find out that they share much more than they had previously believed.

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