The African Union Commission through the Conflict Prevention Directorate, Department of Political Affairs Peace and Security in collaboration with the International IDEA has organised a three-day Training of Trainers’ (ToT) workshop for 44 members of the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY) in Monrovia, Liberia from 11 to 13 September 2023. The electoral assistance to FLY is pursuant to Article 18 of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance which mandates the AU to provide technical assistance to electoral stakeholders, upon request. The main objective of the electoral support to FLY is to assist in peaceful, democratic and credible elections in Liberia.

The training is based on the comprehensive training of trainers’ manual, developed by the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), an organisation that has over a decade-long experience in Electoral violence Monitoring, Analysis and Mitigation ns in Africa to support national, regional and continental training programmes, focused on enhancing meaningful engagement in electoral processes by the youth.

The training of trainers on Youth Election Situation Room is expected to provide an opportunity for the full engagement of Liberian Youth in the electoral process at a time when Liberia is organising elections on its own after the departure of the United Nations Mission to Liberia. In his opening remarks, the Minister of Youth and Sport of the Republic of Liberia Hon. D. Zeogar Wilson stated that “the Government of Liberia is committed to free, fair, credible, transparent and violence free elections” and encourages the full participation of the youth in the electoral process hence, the sitting up  the “ National Youth Taskforce  against Elections Violence” among other initiatives to promote violence free elections working with the Liberian youth including the Federation of Liberian Youth.

The trainees of the ToT are expected to train over 75 others in the counties and capacitate the national executives to set up a functional election situation room during the elections. FLY Trainees will be stationed both in the situation room and on the field across the country to observe the October 2023 elections. FLY will develop a youth specific checklist that will be used to collect data in the field and analyse the said data in the situation room. The platform and dashboard are currently under development and FLY will employ the Uzabe platform for its data tracking and analysis.

For further information, Samuel Atuobi:  Senior Political/Elections Officer, Department of Political Affairs Peace and Security:  Atuobis@africa-union.org