Grand Gedeh County is one of the three (Grand Gedeh, Lofa & Nimba) worse affected counties during the 14 years civil war in Liberia. Many of the youths are pruned to violence. Notably, some youths in Grand Gedeh, especially residing in Zwedru, organized mob violent crowd, against Montserrado District #10 Representative, Hon. Yekeh Kolubah and the political Leader of the Alternative National Congress, Mr. Alexander Cummings. They threw rocks for hours over the guest house they were occupying in protest of their immediate departure from the County. Worse still, the headquarters of the Liberia National Police (LNP) in Zwedru was completely burned down on May 18, 2021 by the youths, when a LNP vehicle hit the motorcycle union president in Zwedru. These incidences of violence continue to undermine the progress of infrastructural development and pose high level threat to the rule of law and social cohesion.
The possible reasons for the youths using violence as an alternative for redress can be attributed to their violent orientations, and the lack of confidence in the criminal justice system and justice actors, although, the formal justice system is challenged with delivering timely justice to those affected. Complainants are required to transport justice actors to effect arrest. Additionally, the Youths confidence have eroded in the justice system with the numerous bribery scandals associated with the formal justice system. Some youth conclude that the formal justice system lack integrity and honesty in handling their issues.

Additionally, young people capacity in peace building has been hindered by discourses that considered youths as victims or villains. Generally, youths are not given the space to express their opinions to policy makers to create the expected change.
In view of the above, YAHP has designed 4 months peacebuilding activities called, “mitigating violence by Increasing youths confidence in the formal Justice System”.

1. Scope of the work

1. Targeted Audiences (specific demographics and communities)

The project activities will be implemented in Zwedru city, Grand Gedeh County, South-East Liberia. The project will targets Youths between the ages 15-35. 40 female and 65 males from various youth groups and community that are mostly involve in advocacy and use to carry out violence. Members of the court and LNP will present on their role in peace building and speaks directly to young people as a way of building young people confidents in the formal justice sectors during the sustainable peace dialogue.
Young mostly used for violence and less privilege youths (Zoggos) regardless of sexual identity and gender orientation, ethnicity, political affiliation, faith and religion. Furthermore, various community youth leaders, less privilege youth, and youth grouping will be selected from the County ministry of Youths & sports data based and be represented during the sustainable peace dialogue. Their capacity will be built on topics like Youths evidence based advocacy, The pathways to access justice and information from justice actors, The roles of the LNP, LDEA and the court in the justice system, Community & youth’s involvement in sustainable dialogue. Three (3) communities (ELRZ, Kudah By-pass, & City Hall Community) that are violent pruned in Zwedru City, will be the center of the project activities. The justice actors (LNP, Liberia Immigration Service, & the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency and the court) will also benefit from the program.

1. Campaign Design and Approach

The project is designed to create space for youths and justice actors to engage through dialogue and discuss issues affecting the youths regarding the justice system. The Justice actors will also present on challenges faced by the justice sector. At the end of the civil dialogue engagement, a resolution of commitment between the youths and the justice actors will be signed as a guiding tool.

In addition, there will be community peace & violence prevention awareness in three identified communities in Zwedru. An interactive radio programming will be ongoing at the local community radio station in Grand Gedeh. Drama on peace building and violence prevention will be produced and play on community radio in Zwedru.

1. Campaign Activities

Activity one: Project inception stakeholder engagement
Hold one project inception meeting with relevant stakeholders in Zwedru for 15 persons (Ministry of Youths & Sports, National Traditional Council, Federation of Liberia Youths, Ministry of Internal Affairs, CSOs, joint security, Zwedru city Corporation, Grand Gedeh County Youths, media). The objective of this stakeholder’s meeting is to introduce the Campaign to stakeholders and inform them about the program activities. The stakeholders will have a deeper understanding of the project and support it.

Activity two: community peace & violence prevention awareness
The YAHP awareness Team will conduct community peace & violence prevention mechanisms in three identified communities in Zwedru. The communities shall include Kudah By-pass, ELRZ and City Hall Community. These communities were chosen based on the prevalent violent rate as reported by the Liberia National Police in Tchien District, Grand Gedeh County. As the result of the awareness, the awareness will be raised at community in a group of 25 with the community youth and leaders. Community members and youth will understand their roles in peace building in the community and contribute to uphold peace. Additionally, any incident that threatens the community peace, shall be reported to the LNP immediately.

Activity three: Youth Sustainable peace Dialogue
Conduct a day sustainable peace dialogue for 25 youths, 2 media representatives, and 3 representatives of the LNP, LIS, & LDEA. The Dialogue is designed to create space for youths and justice actors to engage and discuss issues affecting the youths regarding the justice system. The Justice actors will also present on challenges faced by the justice sector. At the end of the civil dialogue engagement, a resolution of commitment between the youths and the justice actors will be signed as a guiding tool. The presentations at the dialogue will focus on the following:
1. Youths evidence based advocacy
2. The pathways to access justice and information from justice actors;
3. The roles of the LNP, LIS, LDEA in the justice system
4. Community & youth’s involvement in sustainable peace;
The dialogue will be moderated by YAHP and follow the pattern of panel discussion. The objective of the dialogue is to give the youths the space to speak out issues affecting them and give state securities the opportunity to address the issues. At the end of the dialogue, the youth’s confidence in the Justice actors will improve and violence in the communities as a result of distrust in the LNP shall reduce.

Activity four: Radio talk show and Drama
Radio has one of the widest coverage in the County. An interactive radio spot talk show will be held. YAHP will hold 4 radio live talk on the local community radio stations in Grand Gedeh. Justice actors from the LNP, LIS and the LDEA will be featured on the live radio talk show to explain the roles of their respective offices and interact with the general public, especially the youths. Drama on peace building and violence prevention will be produced and play on community radio in Zwedru.

Specific Outputs and Reach

• Enhance the Advocacy and peace-building knowledge and skills of 60 youths in 3 communities in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County;
• Improve the confidence of Tchien District youths in the justice Actors and the and Local Authority
• Minimize youth’s related violence from 40% to 20% in Zwedru by December 2021.
• Youths led CBOs are holding public officials accountable through evidence based advocacy.