Nonprofit organizations are now continuously being challenged to be more strategic in their communications efforts. Communications activities must add up to more than a series of isolated events such as the dissemination of an occasional publication or press release. Being strategic requires that nonprofits be more deliberate, innovative, savvy, and less reactive in their communications practice. Nonprofits are encouraged to regard communications as essential to their overall success and integrate it throughout their organizations.Nonprofits need ways to better understand their current strategic communications performance and capacity, and to gain a realistic sense of what is possible in terms of developing their communications functions. Strategic communications audits are one tool that can help to meet this need.

Paper deals with youth in war-to-peace transitions and the response of international organizations to them. It further assesses the difficulties in conceptualizing the role of youth in peace-building processes on the one hand and the concrete efforts of international organizations to integrate them into their policies and programs on the other.

This AED publication focuses on proven methods for engaging youth in conflict-affected countries in a variety of effective programs that foster their development as well as their peacebuilding skills.