The Future of Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: SDF at the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development
Stockholm, Sweden | 13–14 May 2025
The Social Developmental Forum (SDF) joined over 400 policymakers, practitioners, and researchers from more than 70 countries at the 12th annual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development, hosted by SIPRI in partnership with the Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Under the theme “The Future of Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding,” the Forum marked the tenth anniversary of the UN Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda and spotlighted innovative, people-centred approaches to sustaining peace.
Framing the Digital Age of Peacebuilding
SDF’s Communications Officer, Atta Khaled, represented the organisation in the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation-led panel “Inclusive Digital Age: How Can Artificial Intelligence Advance Youth and Women’s Agency for Peace and Security in the Middle East and North Africa?”. This session explored both the promise and perils of AI in conflict settings. Building on SDF’s commitment to advance the YPS agenda in Palestine, and aligning with its #PalestiniansLivesMatter advocacy campaign, Mr. Khaled detailed how Israel has deployed AI-driven target-selection algorithms in Gaza—facilitating genocidal operations—and surveillance tools in the West Bank to engineer forced displacement.
“When artificial intelligence becomes an instrument of oppression, the communities it claims to serve lose both their safety and their voice,” Atta Khaled reflected. “Our challenge is to retool these technologies to defend human rights, not deny them.”
Mr. Khaled also participated in the dialouge session conducted by the Swedish Dialouge institute on the recnet development in the middle east, which took place the swedish ministry of foreign affairs.
Advancing SDF’s YPS & digital advocacy efforts
SDF’s contributions resonated with insights from the Forum’s opening panel “Shifting Powers: Rethinking Peace and the Future of Security,” which underscored the need for anticipatory, locally owned strategies:
Yet we all wait for the catastrophe to happen, and we react to that. So instead of being the actors, we are the reactors.
Nisreen Elsaim, former Chair, UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
“Diplomacy should be anticipatory, grounded in local realities—even when great powers look away,”
— Elena Mârzac, Executive Director, Platform for Security and Defence Initiatives
These reflections mirror SDF’s bottom-up approach, which places youth and women at the heart of prevention, not merely response. Since October 2023, SDF has launched dedicated youth networks in Gaza that lead its relief, advocacy and development efforts. SDF’s engagement in Stockholm reinforces its commitment to advocate for meaningful decision-making power for young people in peace processes, beyond token representation and calls for protocols that protect civilians, especially women and youth—from surveillance abuses and digital exclusion.
A step toward global solidarity:
Across the forum, themes of AI for peacebuilding, conflict resolution, political settlement, and digital resistance were explored through the lens of global peace and security. From Palestine to Syria, from Sudan to Yemen, from Congo to Ukraine, and from Myanmar to Pakistan, these narratives echoed the SDF’s vision of empowering youth to lead just peacebuilding in Palestine.
The forum not only enriched SDF’s approach around global solidarity and advocacy but also opened pathways for global alliances and collaborations. Through participation in this event, SDF aims to strengthen its position as a key Palestinian voice in the international civil society space, asserting that the road to justice is collective and global. This participation is yet another step in building that collective peace, led by the power of the people. It also underscores our ongoing commitment to harnessing the energy of youth and grassroots actors in the pursuit of peace and justice and reaffirms our belief that real and just peace is people-led, intersectional, and rooted in dignity.
Read more: From Gaza to Brussels: SDF’s Advocacy for Youth, Peace, and Security in the Mediterranean