AYV News May 17, 2023
The European Union and the Youth Partnership for Peace and Development (YPPD), have conducting a capacity-building workshop for youth leaders on Peace-building and Electoral Conflict Prevention in Bo district.
This is in recognition of the critical role of young people in peacebuilding and electoral conflict prevention and given the relevance of youth inclusion in electoral processes.
The workshop brings together 100 youth leaders from across the 16 districts and aims to constructively engage young people by providing them with requisite knowledge and skills in conflict prevention particularly in view of the forthcoming June national elections in in the country.
Similarly, the YPPD will organise a one-day regional students’ sensitisation event on political participation in collaboration with relevant student groups on 22 May 2023.
One hundred pupils (100) from around the Western region are expected to participate in the pilot event in Freetown.
During both events, the Electoral Commission of Sierra-Leone (EC-SL) would utilize the platform to further educate young people on the recently introduced Proportional Representation system (PR system) through its commissioners.
The workshop will feature topics on conflict analysis, mediation, election observation, communication. Participants will engage in a variety of activities such as panel discussions, group exercises, and role-playing sessions.
By the end of these engagements, it is anticipated that the young participants would understand practical ways of deploying their energy, creativity, and passion towards fostering peaceful democratic societies and would utilize their enhanced capacities to play key roles in averting electoral conflicts.
The initiative is implemented by the Youth Partnership for Peace and Development (YPPD) with the support of the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture and Operations (EPSAO) Project which is co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The EPSAO Project supports the ECOWAS Commission in its mandate to address regional peace and security threats through strengthening of capacities in four crucial policy areas including: Peace Support Operations, Conflict Prevention, Security Sector Reform and Governance (SSRG) as well as in Electoral Affairs.
The EPSAO Projects seeks to address the root causes and to promote collective action and joint regional strategies by ECOWAS Member States to curb conflict and insecurity, including rebellions, violent extremism, communal violence, the spread of illicit small arms and light weapons, piracy, land-use conflicts, and election-related violence.
