COMESA in collaboration with the African Union (AU), Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and other partners, convened the 4th Intergenerational Dialogue Forum for the Island States region from 1 to 3 September 2025 in Belle Mare, Mauritius.
This year’s Forum focused on strengthening intergenerational collaboration to address key challenges across the Island States region, including maritime insecurity, climate crises, democratic governance and electoral instability, and conflict resolution. Through inclusive and multi-dimensional dialogue, the event aimed to advance peacebuilding efforts and promote long-term regional stability.
Under the theme “Building Peace, Healing Divides: Intergenerational Action for Conflict Prevention, Democratic Governance and Gender Justice”, the Forum sought to primarily foster an open dialogue between youth and the seasoned generations to strengthen mutual understanding and cooperation on peacebuilding and governance issues in the island region.
It also equipped youth with the knowledge to address maritime insecurity and climate crises while promoting sustainable use of the blue economy as a peacebuilding strategy. Other topics discussed included the need to raise awareness of gender-based violence as a systematic barrier to peace and advocate for the integration of gender justice into peacebuilding initiatives.
To kick start the forum, COMESA Assistant Secretary General – Administration and Finance, Dr Dev Haman described the gathering as timely as youth are playing a key role in society.
“The heart of this Forum is dialogue. Intergenerational dialogue is about breaking stereotypes, challenging mistrust, and building understanding across age groups. It creates spaces where ideas and wisdom meet, where youth energy merges with decades of elderly experience and wisdom,” he said.
African Union Chairperson of the Panel of the Wise, Hon. Justice Effie Owour said:
“The experience of Island States offers lessons for the entire continent. We see resilience in how communities create ways to thrive with limited resources”.
The Dialogue Forum brought together youth representatives and stakeholders from Comoros, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, and La Réunion.
Participation also included the African Union Panel of the Wise, members of the COMESA Youth Advisory Panel, the FEMWISE, African Union Youth Ambassador for Peace for East Africa, Horn of Africa Youth Network and the Indian Ocean Regional Youth Parliament among others.
The dialogue forum produced an Action Plan Document with programmatic and policy recommendations including among others, the need to intergrate awareness of Gender Based Violence into school curricula and community programmes, utilising local languages and cultural contexts to ensure resonance, a call to Member States to ratify and fully implement existing regional agreements, and Introduce conflict resolution, values techniques and reinforce civic education in schools.