Working with youth to build peace in West Africa

Conciliation Resources are working with young men and women in Sierra Leone, who have been marginalized, are unemployed, frustrated and vulnerable. Many of them have been victims of the war but have not been re-integrated into the wider society.

Even though the target is young people in general, the focus is on ‘floating youth’ who are mainly commercial sex workers and bike riders who remain a highly challenging group to work with and whose social and economic exclusion has put them at the centre of many violent eruptions.

This work has influenced national policy in Sierra Leone on how the government should meet the needs of this section of the population.

Projects

CR's work with youth is designed to support youth leaders to act as responsible community ‘change agents’ by providing education and awareness-raising opportunities. It also aims to make the views of young men and women better understood by policy makers through dialogue sessions involving youth, community elders, politicians and the councils and to enable them to find non-violent ways to address conflicts and challenges.

We have gathered valuable information on the role and impact of young people in a post-conflict society and developed, in partnership, a way of engaging with these young people to facilitate their positive contribution to their communities. In bringing them together with government officials, community leaders and members of the police and army, we have been able to begin the process of resolving misunderstandings and challenging stereotypes.

Relationships have been developed with the Bike Riders Association and commercial sex workers in Bo and Kenema districts. These are young people who have been particularly affected by conflict, both as victims and perpetrators. Experience shows that these groups are fundamental to the maintenance of peace in Sierra Leone yet many remain marginalized from projects implemented by NGOs and INGOs in the region.

The Bike Riders Association provides much needed taxi services using motorbikes. Riders are almost exclusively male and with a large percentage of ex-combatants they are often at the centre of violent conflicts. They remain a key group to engage with if efforts at conflict transformation are to be successful.

Our Youth in Progress project and drop-in-centre in Kenema, eastern Sierra Leone, trains young war-affected people on finding alternatives to violence. After several years of mentoring and accompaniment, young men and women are now involved in business and agricultural micro-enterprise groups, with ongoing guidance and support from community advisory groups. Greater trust and respect from community leaders has led to better relations between these two generations historically prone to settling their differences through violence.

In the run up to the 2007 general elections, CR worked with the Bike Riders Association in Bo and Kenema and drama groups in Bo to develop Youth-to-Youth Campaign for Violence Free Elections. This enabled youth representatives to learn more about the electoral process and the electoral laws as well as campaign against election related violence among young people.

In Freetown, we supported students from Fourah Bay College Peace and Conflict Department’s Society for Peace and Conflict Resolution to successfully campaign for fair and unusually violence-free national student elections.

The Youth Coordinating Committee (YCC) is a group of ten young men and women elected by young people representing youth groups in Kenema district, Sierra Leone. The YCC has been central to the planning and implementation of our work to engage young people more fully in sustaining peace.

“This project has helped me to build my skills. I have gained more confidence and now I have become an executive member of an important youth organization.” Bridget, YCC member

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