If we wait until tomorrow to act, it will be too late. Through the meetings we organise, we help our elders understand that unresolved conflict will grow until it becomes unsolvable and dictates our reality.
Olivier Mayeri is a youth leader working on peace and development in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Today, he helps young people from Burundi, DRC and Rwanda build peace across conflict divides through the Kizazi cha Amani (KCA) project (generation of peace, in Swahili).
In a region facing yet another war that pulls families and neighbours apart, these efforts offer young men and women growing up amid frustration and despair a way to be heard and contribute to the development of their communities. Olivier is trying to make his contribution worthwhile.
Growing up amid tensions and stereotypes
Olivier, now 27, was born in a small village in Walungu territory, in South Kivu province, eastern DRC. Both his parents were teachers, and they raised Olivier and his eight brothers and sisters in a spirit of respect for one another, dignity, solidarity, and a commitment to giving back to their community.
But living by those values has been difficult in a place shaped by decades of conflict. It was normal to see someone from another group as a thief, murderer, or someone practising witchcraft, remembers Olivier.
Tensions in his extended family, civil unrest and a lack of opportunity pushed Olivier to leave his home village for Bukavu. There, he graduated with a degree in sustainable development and moved into community work, while discovering the real impacts of conflict on the lives of his peers.
Choosing to stay or leave? Difficult and dangerous decisions
South Kivu’s young people have for decades faced high unemployment and inequality, leaving many feeling on the margins of society. For young men especially, this frustration worsens because of widespread ideas of masculinity as showing physical might and control.
Armed groups exploit this by promising young people status, a sense of belonging, and power over others through carrying a weapon. “When armed groups dangle a concrete gain in front of a young person who has had no prospects for years, who feels abandoned by the state, too many feel compelled to accept,” Olivier explains.
He watched it happen to a close friend, who joined an armed group. More than a year on, the protection and rewards he was promised never came, yet leaving the group felt just as dangerous as staying. If he ‘snitched’, a life in hiding would be his only option: his community would never accept him back – and the armed group would not let him leave voluntarily.
Since January 2025, the M23 armed group’s offensive has seized both Goma and Bukavu, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and killed thousands more – the latest chapter in a crisis that had already left over 4.6 million Congolese displaced before the current escalation began.
Olivier adds that some young people choose violence for revenge, believing they can “settle scores” and return. Some never come back. But some believe that change is possible. And Olivier made it his mission to give these young men and women a pathway to contribute to peace.
Breaking the pattern of tokenism
Olivier joined the KCA project, run by International Alert and Pole Institute, in 2025. He describes it as “a project of youth, by youth, for youth“, one that broke through young people’s scepticism in practice, not just in theory.
Before KCA, many of his peers had grown reluctant to engage in peacebuilding work, having seen how tokenism plays out elsewhere: “young people have nothing valuable to say or cannot do anything serious”, as Olivier puts it.
We would only be invited for a ‘family photo’ or to fill out the numbers.
What changed that, he says, is genuine ownership, paired with sustained investment in young people’s capacity to analyse conflict and design responses. Olivier used these skills to help map local youth organisations, then to work with them to form youth forums. These structures connect local representatives to plan and carry out community activities that bring people together – spaces to build resilience to the challenges they face, find encouragement and hope, and support each other.
He also travelled through Bukavu’s three communes gathering testimony on how young people experience conflict, part of a wider participatory action research launched by the project. That research, alongside youth consultations across the Great Lakes region, fed directly into a Youth Agenda for Peace. It sets out how peace can be built around social cohesion, cross-border cooperation, participatory governance, safety and youth entrepreneurship.
Olivier is now part of Bukavu’s youth forum that brings together 200 young people from 18 youth-led organisations. Working part-time, he commits half of every week to KCA.
The case for inclusive participation
Olivier insists every young person can contribute to peace, “in their own environment, their family, their work, their church.” That principle shapes how KCA is structured: cooperation between youth organisations built on equal partnership to mobilise diverse voices.
“The idea that some young people are more capable of contributing than others undermines collective efforts towards peacebuilding. Imagine if those who are always in the spotlight were to disappear – the work would collapse and we would have to start from scratch. But if everyone is involved, the initiative will live on.”
This approach, Olivier argues, is one of the project’s core strengths, because it keeps activities grounded in the realities of groups too often left out of peace processes entirely: young women, people with disabilities, people with albinism, and other marginalised groups.
Consulting only a young person in Kinshasa about resolving the conflict in eastern DRC, instead of going directly to the person who lives the reality of the conflict, is like trying to resolve a land dispute by questioning the neighbours instead of the owner.
Signs that something is shifting
The feedback KCA participants are getting is encouraging. “At least you’re serious; you’re doing great work in the city,” people have told Olivier. “I regularly get messages on social media about our Agenda, and people are impressed to learn where this is happening.”
There are also visible shifts in behaviours and attitudes. “Some of my peers see a dedication to peace and dialogue as a form of ‘weakness’. It takes daily efforts to challenge these stereotypes – but I am seeing more young men come to realise that contributing to peace is also a strong way to show their commitment to their community.”
One youth forum participant told Olivier he wouldn’t even have greeted someone from the neighbouring country before an activity – until he met them and felt the barriers disappear. Peers who once struggled to unite around a shared vision now talk about building coalitions and settle disagreements amicably when they arise. Even amid escalating conflict, youth from DRC and Rwanda have continued to meet regularly.
If someone cracks a joke laced with hate speech, another young person calls it out immediately. “It’s a remarkable change, especially here, and it fills me with joy,” Olivier says.
Hate speech and prejudice have no place in the mind of a young person who aspires to peace.
None of this happened quickly. “Even getting young people to want to meet took time: time to approach them, listen, and help them understand it’s still possible to find the right path,” he shares. “It requires energy and commitment from many of us coming together.”
A vision for peace that can finally last
“Young people… are starting to be heard, in the province and the capital,” he says. The agenda young people developed now guides their own actions, and Olivier and his peers carry them directly to decision-makers in Kinshasa and Kigali, advocating for sustained dialogue between young people and leaders.
The project has already helped create space for young men and women to realise their potential for peace. But it takes shared commitment from national and local government authorities, community organisations, international partners, and young leaders alike to ensure this work continues and its impact lasts. Olivier warns:
Without longer-term support, these agendas would remain dead letters.
Change, he believes, must come from both sides. “Young people need to change how they see things – by being better organised, they’ll more easily prove their capabilities,” he says. “But there’s still a mindset among decision-makers that holds things back. We’re working to influence them gently, through our actions, rather than through pressure.”
Looking ahead, Olivier hopes peacebuilding in the Great Lakes region will also help people on all sides of the conflict come to terms with the pain and hurt they have endured – and move past it. For now, he keeps showing up, convinced that what his peers are building may be the first peace many of them have ever known, and the one that finally lasts.
