About the Project

Social Emotional Learning for Sustainable Peace is a pilot project under the Asia Peace Innovators Forum (APIF) Fellowship. The project was designed by a team of APIF Fellows and is supported by the Salzburg Global Seminar and the Nippon Foundation. Given the relevance to the subject-matter and topic, the project pilot is implemented in collaboration with Karanga: The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills.

Project Vision

Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills are key human capabilities vital for a young person to succeed and thrive in school, work, and life. These include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Research shows these foundational skills produce positive cognitive, psychological, and behavioral outcomes that directly contribute to young people’s foundational peace-building skills, values, and competencies.

Yet, despite the benefits of SEL to individuals, economies, and peace, SEL continues to be absent or inaccessible from educational systems, workforce training, and societal values. Thus, there is a need to bridge the gap between SEL advocacy and SEL practice/evidence.

This two-year pilot project aims to promote and establish SEL as a form of learning for youth in conflict-affected and marginalized contexts through a repository of proven and researched outside-the-classroom SEL learning practices. One of the project goals would be to learn from successful outside-the-classroom SEL use-cases from different regions as a complement to formal education systems or as an addition to informal learning spaces.

The project outcomes would include the creation of an SEL Repository for Sustainable Peace for easier access to these proven best-practices together with learning, practice-oriented tools, and implementation guidelines for each intervention developed through a process of Participatory Action-Research.

The project design attributes offer a unique, sustainable approach to addressing the critical need of SEL as a foundational learning component for youth in conflict-affected and marginalized contexts.

Project Summary Infographic

Project Initiation and Awareness

As part of the project communication and outreach efforts, the team undertook a series of awareness and stakeholder engagement efforts during the period of February - May 2022, including at local levels in the three (3) pilot implementing countries: Sri Lanka, Kenya, and South Korea. These included downstream and upstream stakeholder assessment and engagement in each implementing country, design and creation of a series of communication assets, market and user research, including data collection for prototype and testing of training curriculums and interventions, and global stakeholder focus group consultations.

Below is an Outcome Report of two (2) focus group consultations held involving more than 20 participants from 10 countries representing the civil society, academia, foundations, educators, peace activists, journalists, and international organizations.

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Project Implementation: 3 Pilot Countries

Based on the project team’s composition, expertise, and existing networks, the following 3 countries were selected for the pilot implementation of the project over the 2-year period.

Sri Lanka

Educate Lanka Foundation will be carrying out implementation of SEL interventions in Sri Lanka for socioeconomically marginalized youth between ages 13-25 through its existing SEL curriculums, training programs, and network of implementing partners. APIF Fellow, Manjula Dissanayake, who is the founder and executive director of Educate Lanka, will lead and oversee the implementation efforts.

Kenya

APIF Fellow, Samuel Karuita, a peace activist and director of programs at the Peace Ambassadors Integration Organization, will be leading the implementation efforts in Kenya. The pilots will be focused on marginalized youth between ages 18-25 from urban informal settlements and in formal higher education and will be implemented with the support of local civil society organizations and universities.

South Korea

APIF Fellow, Zoya Sardashti, will be leading the pilot implementation in South Korea targeting youth between ages 13-25 who identify themselves as female, feminist, or/and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The pilot will use the SEL curriculum: Autoethnography: Composing Experience through Performance and will be implemented in collaboration with local civil society organizations.

Project Team

The project team consists of the following Fellows of the Asia Peace Innovators Forum who share deep interest and experience in the space and the intersection of peacebuilding and social emotional learning.