Colombia is home to one of the world’s longest ongoing armed conflicts, which has resulted in severe economic and social disparities, and victimized approximately 15 percent of the country’s population. Many analysts agree that, regardless of the ongoing peace negotiations between the government and the country’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), peace must be constructed at the local level.

While a rising number of African youth are getting involved in politics, their focus should shift from protests to the long-term work of building democratic institutions, according to Ibraheem ‘Bukunle Sanusi, deputy head of the African Union’s (AU) African Governance Architecture Secretariat.