Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies

War and displacement do not only destroy homes and infrastructure; they transform how people live together. RECONNECT examines how women and youth shape social reconstruction through everyday, community-based and translocal practices—and what enables or constrains their agency amid ongoing conflict, displacement and return.

Conflict and displacement reshape trust, belonging and social relations long after people have left or returned home. Yet, women and youth are often viewed primarily as vulnerable groups or aid recipients, while their perspectives and everyday contributions to social reconstruction remain underrecognised.

RECONNECT examines how women and youth engage in (re)integration and social reconstruction across societies affected by ongoing conflict and its legacies. Rather than assuming they are inherently agents of peace, the project asks when, how and under what conditions their formal and informal practices help rebuild trust, address grievances and foster more inclusive forms of co-existence and which structural, political and socio-cultural barriers constrain their agencies.

Through comparative, multi-sited qualitative research in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Sahel and South-Eastern Europe, the project connects places of displacement, migration and return.

The findings will provide evidence-based guidance for development cooperation, supporting context-sensitive, gender-responsive and youth-inclusive approaches to (re)integration, peacebuilding and social reconstruction.