Mridul Upadhyay

Mridul Upadhyay is a peacebuilding practitioner from India. He has been working for more than a decade in the field of youth peacebuilding at the grassroots, national, regional and global levels through peace education, advocacy, research, networking, community dialogue and capacity development of individuals, youth-led organisations, community leaders, public officials and UN agencies.

He developed the YPS Monitor to present data on assessing leadership, participation and inclusion of young people in the implementation of the Youth, Peace & Security (YPS) agenda at the national level. He also co-chairs the Thematic Working Group on YPS of UN Asia Pacific Interagency Network on Youth (APINY).

He has been researching context and designing, implementing and evaluating activities of several youth-led and youth-centric organizations, networks and government agencies such as the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY), Search for Common Ground, The Commonwealth, US Institute of Peace (USIP), Finn Church Aid and several UN agencies and other grassroots organizations. He is the co-founder and chief advisor at Youth for Peace International and supports Indian Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security (ICYPS). He was founding council member of Global Youth Councils/Outcome groups of Search for Common Ground, KAICIID and the United States Institute of Peace.

Mridul has developed various toolkits and guides on peace education, advocacy and YPS implementation. His YPS research has been published globally. He has contributed to the US YPS Act 2020, UN SG report on YPS 2020, UNOY Localizing 2250 guide, USIP meta-review, UN joint action plan on youth peacebuilding, UN system-wide community engagement guidelines on peacebuilding & sustaining peace, UN civic space public consultation, IPTI online consultation on civil society and inclusive peace, World Bank consultation on future strategy for fragility, UNESCO Asia - Regional Youth Strategy, UNESCO Youth Policy Toolkit, UN Youth Peace Security Consultation and UNESCO MGIEP’s Youth-led guide on Prevention of Violent Extremism through Education.

He has been a speaker and moderator for several high-level political forums, panels and discussions all over the world. Mridul was recognised as Hero of Dialogue by KAICIID, as a recipient of the Mind and Life Think Tank grant, a Commonwealth Young Achiever, featured in ‘Like the Olive Tree: Stories of Courage & Resilience from Twenty-Four Peace Activists’ book.