ACCORD’s Peacebuilding Unit, together with the Liberia Peacebuilding Office, completed the third and final training of political party youth wing representatives held in Gbarnga, Bong County, Liberia, 20-23 of June 2017.
The collaborative effort between ACCORD and the Liberia Peacebuilding Office successfully covered the whole country by targeting five counties during each training. The first training was held in Monrovia (19-21, April, 2017), and the second was held in Zwedru (17-21, May 2017). The trainings were organized with an overall objective to contribute to the country’s readiness for a peaceful, free and fair election and contribute to the mitigation of violence through enhancing the knowledge and skills of the youth as key peacebuilding stakeholders.
These trainings created a space for representatives of political parties’ youth wings, civil society organisations, the Government of Liberia and the United Nations to secure an endorsement of statements committing all who participated towards a peaceful election. These Statements were crafted to place the youth and civil society at the centre of the election process tasked to promote and consolidate peaceful elections in October 2017. Furthermore, the process allowed youth representatives and civil society organizations to network for the purpose of exchanging information and engage jointly to prevent election related violence that may arise.
ACCORD was represented by Kwezi Mngqibisa, Senior Interventionist Specialist; and Bezawit Kefyalew, Peacebuilding Unit: Senior Programme Officer. ACCORD’s engagement in these consecutive trainings were supported by the Government of Finland through the African Peacebuilding Coordination Programme (APCP) at ACCORD since 2007.
