The West Africa Women and Girls Empowerment Sierra Leone has worked to improve free, fair, and peaceful elections on June 24th.

INTRODUCTION

Despite young people’s ability to affect positive change in democratic processes they can also be involved in and  subject to election –related violence .Although the vast majority of young people are neither violent nor interested in violence, political leaders sometime successfully manipulate and mobilize young people to initiate or escalate violent actions to support their own political objectives. In some part of the country with history of election violence, some youth groups have developed strong ties with some political parties that have been directly involved in violent activities.

Elections are key elements of democratic process they provide for transparent peaceful change of government and distribution of power for this ,a strong emphasis on democratization as a means to durable peace emerged among international policy circles the notion of supporting peace building in tendon with democratization developed as a consequence of the recognition that political often, is the very reason youth took to arms in the first place .hence democratization does not only open up for manifestations of political rights, but is also seen as a response to addressing the root causes of election violence. Promote democratic norms and to ensure democratic rule of law is now seen a crucial for peace building yet experiences and recent research snuggest that democratization in transitional and elections in particular can become a hindrance rather than a solution to peace building. Elections are key for fostering peace and stability in transitional settings and are often as a result one of the control elements of peace deals and transitional political accords for example the Nations Security Council Resolution 2254  

Also suggest that the problems of early elections can be mitigated by the context in which they occur including the presence of certain political institutions and peace building mechanism these, factors are likely to affect not only the quality and legitimacy of the elections but also the consequences of losing the elections for several reason, violence can be unattractive option to influence the electoral process and outcome. Election violence beyond direct effects such as hindering people from costing their vote and perverting candidates from participating in the election, can have long term effects from a conflict prevention perspective low intensity ,or localized violence can serve as a training ground for more large scale violence at a time numerous civil society organizations has conceded hate speech strongly.  

BACKGROUND

Election violence occurs in a complete system of social economic political and security dynamics election appears to be playing virtually all factors of human existence today .in Sierra Leone .one form of violence that is predominate yet seasonal is electoral violence through seasonal electoral violence has pervaded. The sierra Leonean public space to the extent that many offer forms of violence could remotely or immediately, be lanced to it mostly during election, so much violence is perpetrated in Sierra Leone.

This work identifies that is mostly youth that perpetrate election violence very often they do this without check and actually away with it. Political parties often give youth’s money, alcohol, drugs or weapons, in exchange for participating or causing political riots generally disrupting the electoral process and or buy their votes. Election related crime delegitimizes the process that underpin democratic systems .to preserve the integrity of election and prevent the eruption of election related violence; aggressive effort should be taken to disband party militia group or violent youth wings of political parties that support them.

The Sierra Leone police can play an important role in monitoring illicit activities and ensuring that reports of possible investigations. Multi party dialogues are often held to encourage cooperation and build trust between the different political youth leaders in interests of peaceful and credible elections.      

According to Brchard 2019 as well as fide and Hagland 2016 report says more than 50% percent of the elections held over the past two decades in African countries have experienced some form of electoral violence and youth have been particularly affected in the interests of peaceful elections. Young people are the most affected either as victims or perpetrators, the very rich literature on youth and political violence has identified several ultimate and proximal factors that facilitate youth engagement in electoral violence .including material and non-material.

Preventing election violence through diplomacy aimed at promoting and supporting an environment conducive to peaceful and successful elections and ensuring electoral integrity by encouraging government official’s election management bodies’ political leadership and non-sate actors to keep election related tensions or disputes from escalating into violence and to pursue legal means to express disagreements.

JUSTIFICATION

Africa is the leading youthful continent with a demographic index of a total population of close to 1.32 billion people as of 2019 ,60% of the population are under the age 25 ,young people between the age of and 35 constitute one thirds of Africa population .Given its rapidly growing population it is projected that by 2030 the number of youth will have increased by 42% ,this projection presents both opportunities and challenges the youth in sierra Leone have right expectations will and demands toward political participation that need to be taken into account to ensure real social contract between citizens and powers .These aspirations can be best achieved by enabling their equitable and meaningful participation and ownership of all sectors of society making processes. Outbreak of election related violence can be devastating, but experience has shown that they can be prevented.  

  

AIMS OBJECTIVE

These process included quantitative analysis key informant interviews with youths and stakeholders in the field. And strengthen capacities and skills of youths to become more effective agents of positive and constructive change in electoral and political conflicts prevention, to establish effective communication between young people and various political parties, youth wings and leadership.

Key objective

• To conduct multiple dialogues with youth’s leadership and all political parties’ youth leaders before, during and after election.

• Identify leverage points spheres of influence and social capital that can be tapped into for broader impact at the strategic level.

• Increase the impact of specific peace building interventions and activities by ensuring that the right combination of stakeholders.

• Provide a platform for young politicians to reflect on and discuss the root causes of elections violence.

• Share experiences and knowledge on preventing election violence

MESSAGE

Spreading one single message across the country on peace violence and togetherness with emphasis on

Nationalism and putting the country above everything else

INTENDED TARGET GROUP

• Political youth leaders

• Youth organizations

• Unemployed youths

• Schools

• Market place and communities

 

PROGRAM

PREVENTING ELECTION VIOLENCE THROUG DIPLOMACY

Due to the persistent violence mostly perpetuated by youth during political activities in Sierra Leone, this program will gear towards bringing youth together through organized out door school to school community engagements, workshop meeting and round table discussion with key political leaders youths where they will have opportunities to interact with one another we will use those medium to preach a message on no violence by youth in politics especially during and offer election.

Preventing election violence through diplomacy is targeted youth and to broadening their understating of the phenomena of election related violence, the target audience includes electoral management bodies’ security sector agencies and other democracy.

ACTIVITIES

Schools and Communities

We are also going to have 1 hour session in schools and communities in collaboration with schools Authority and communities’ stakeholders on the important of nationalism and putting the country’s interest above everything    

Election song

We will be doing an elation songs with influential youth artists on the song title (peace dea na we han) that song also will be playing in different radio stations nationwide.

TV and Radio Talk Show Documentary

We will be having 1 hour radio and TV talk show in key major stations nationwide which will be invite political youth leaders to be part of the show which show a sing of unity among political heads

Official Youths summit

The summit meeting and round table discussion with key political leaders youths where they will have opportunities to interact with one another we will use those medium to preach a message on violence by youth in politics especially during and after election. And the different political youths leaders will sing up to a Peace Agreement between them and Young People of Sierra Leone. With this document it will show how ready they are to keep the peace process during and after elections.

BENFICIARIES OF THE PROJECT

ALL Citizens

ORGANIZATION DOCUMENT

Official registration

Constitutions

Ministry of planning and economic Development

NRA \SLANGO