Youth Civic Engagement in Governance

In Liberia, youth both men and women have limited voices, resources, and power to influence power holders. Youth and women-led local organizations struggle to gain the right talents to support their advocacy passions and courses.
This has led to a gap in policies. in addition, technology is used only for limited purposes - often advocacy that is not structured. Because of this, critical and most relevant voices even when heard do not find their way into national policies and programs. 
After careful research and deliberations, Citizens' Power has identified this as an opportunity for young people, women, men, and persons with disabilities. 
If online discussions driven by technology are logically organized and transformed into critical, constructive, and structured voices, they will impact policy, program, and processes and the data generated from these online can be used to inform and direct power holders including ministries, the national legislature, and the presidency to make important changes with the impact that is lasting. 

In organizations, smaller groups and civil society groups do not have the resources to train their workforce, especially target training on advocacy and key national issues in a timely manner. and when a new breed of young leaders is fully trained, they end up in government, big organizations, and the business community. Those organizations at the grassroots with the biggest potential and then left empty with poorly trained youth who with all the passion lacks the capacity to drive change and promote high-level advocacy. To this end, this project will provide civic engagement training that provides the grassroots organization with the knowledge and tools driven by technology to narrow this gap. A civic engagement Institute will be established with tools and processes that will be sustained long after the project that new and needy organizations can use at all times. 

Social dialogues are not often utilized by youth and this often makes them miss a lot of opportunities as agitation often is too loud to be heard and too costly sometimes for youth as they are chased and labeled. To this end, this project will direct and organize youth political social dialogues where power holders and young leaders can meet face to face and discuss national issues in a friendly manner and ensure that stronger stand-by youth remains a pillar to engaging power holders. 

In addition, an annual State of Youth civic engagement report will be compiled and published as part of a call to action to empower Liberian youths, youth with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups.

Citizens' Power will build a Technology driven solution to the three problems outlined in a framework called: Specific, Targeted Redress Advocacy Technical Engagement on Governance for Youth (STRATEGY). This strategy is based on three critical interventions:
• Technology-driven youth participation and Inclusion in Governance 
• Civic Education for Youth aged 14-21 
• Promoting Dialogue on Youth Political Participation 
Using existing platforms, this project will develop an Application that collects data on key national issues and the information collated and developed into a policy statement on a regular basis. Facebook and Twitter will be used for broader dissemination but a website where discussions are compiled will support the application while information on Facebook will be an additional tool to collect views and comments from young people.  
At the Civic Engagement Institute, a Learning center that is equipped with physical space, as well as an online space, will help young people learn, share and support each other on advocacy, policy discussions, and understanding key national issues as they contribute.  Webinars, Zoom discussions, and Google Meet will all form part of the tools made available integrated into the website and the application to e developed. 
The National Dialogues (locally and nationally) will help bring all these thoughts in one place and form part of engagement with the powerholders. Events will be both online using technology for wider participation and better outreach. 
Out of this engagement and solutions, the final outcome will see youth voices increased in a more structured way, and powerholders willing and exhibiting the political will that brings them face to face with those needing the policies and programs developed. 

This solution is tailored and made to serve vulnerable youths, youth with disabilities, and young women. The critical voices of these people have so much to benefit politicians and technocrats in many ways, and as such, building a resilient society will bring all voices into policy formulation and when these policies are deployed, they will be relevant and meets the need. 
Presently, the relationship between young people in Liberian and their leaders is too weak and poor to accept that the present government has a mandate. And since youth have not been welcomed in the space, Facebook and other social media platforms have been used. Often followed with rumours and this has escalated into fake news, misinformation, and ungovernable systems leaving the government too weak as corruption continues, poverty high, and political appetite already reduced. Liberia goes to elections in October, and already, counties believed to be reachable have seen lower Voter Registration and this can be attributed to a lost appetite for the political system. 
With this program, it is believed that such can be reduced and stopped if only the youth have the right platforms to provide their voice and they can see their contributions forming part of the national agenda. This project will work with youth (men, women, and persons with disabilities) using tools and processes that are inclusive, targeted, and specific to their needs so that they can see themselves in the policy and national development landscape.
This solution will train to empower, engage to inform, convene to discuss and promote to have a voice using technology, and strategic approaches that blend online platforms and coordinated human-driven efforts for positive change in Liberia. 
The youth will have the right tools and will have the knowledge, power, and resources they need to make them contribute. 

Citizens Power has a team that is a combination of passion, experience, and community presence. The Founder has been a key driver of change in Liberia working and supporting grassroots organizations especially youth and women-led groups. 
Citizens' Power was founded to fill a gap within Liberian Civic Space where small organizations have little or no resources but they are the most vulnerable and the people with the lived experience of the problems affecting the country. As such, empowering them remains a critical and important milestone to achieve, and sustaining the support is even better. 
Our programs are based and strategically driven by social media advocacy, and training of grassroots organizations. As a Development Professional, the founder has practical work experience in advocacy, good governance, Land Rights, and political participation with a wealth of innovative multi-sectoral and partnerships frameworks and he is Skilled in capacity building, with a specialty in Disability and CSO engagement, Governance, and Inclusion with a special focus on youth and women. The Founder is an African Civic Engagement Fellow (2021) and African Middle Eastern Institute (AMEL) Certified Leader (Fellow 2022)
The Head of the program (executive Direct) is a public health practitioner with long-standing student engagement in Liberia. The Advocacy Lead is a strong advocate with a stronghold in the Liberian Civic space and links to the civic moments in Liberia. 
As such, for both the technical and resource management levels, the Citizens Power team is built to implement such programs. This project combines human and technology-driven innovation that empowers young people, men and women, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable youth so that they contribute to policy and national development. The aim is to provide technology-driven youth participation and inclusion in governance, provide civic education for youth aged 14-21, and promote dialogue on youth political and development participation in a more constructive way to drive change and create impact for all youth – a process of national prosperity through friendly engagements. 

Applying to solve is a need-based application to help translate a tested approach that when supported has a huge local, national, and regional impact on young people in Africa and around the world. 
This program is designed to be cost-effective. As a Technology driven action, the project's key needs are technical support and capacity building which will include the following:
• Building a strong website that will be used for training, and online engagements linked to an application that collects timely data on national issues from youth and shared by stakeholders within the time in a more structured way - data-driven solutions as evidenced-based advocacy and support. 
• Build the capacity of three key staff
• Establish an online Library and a physical space for learning and exchanges 
• Equip the learning space with computers and a state-of-the-earth conference room for zooms, meetings, presentations, and digital advocacy 
Any other financial and support system will be an added value and advantage to support costs related to running the office and staff stipend. 

In today's advocacy, almost every social media platform is used. People especially young people agitate and sometimes share their views online. This process has been widely used except that it is not structured, and the actual message does not reach the actual power holders. When it does, either it is too harsh or more confusing than expected- with a limited message and evidenced-based data for true and policy-based consumption. 

Leveraging on these existing platforms, Citizens Power has framed this program called STRATEGY ( Specific, Targeted Redress Advocacy Technical Engagement on Governance for Youth) as a specific layer of transforming online discussions and advocacy into a data-driven process, collected, formulated, and transformed into policy briefs, directly help power holders to utilize such information in a more positive way and help transformed youth participation in governance. 

On the other hand, grassroots organizations need a space and tools - but often, there are very limited organizations working in this space where tools, processes and opportunities for learning exist. This innovation intends to narrow that gap by providing physical and online space that is readily available, a library and an opportunity for learning, exchanges and sharing of tools for youth advocacy, development policy and inclusion into programs. 

At a third layer, often, dialogues at local and national levels do not reflect citizens' needs. As such, participation in dialogues is just a tick-the-box or only meets limited needs. To empower citizens, local, national and regional dialogues will look at issues affecting the public collated from online discussions and utilized within a framework of social exchanges on the most pressing needs of youth. 

The innovation is an escalation of collecting online views, transforming them into structured policy documents, publishing State of the Youth Civic Spaces and providing spaces for continuous learning driven by technology, data and human needs. 

The main goal of this action is to ensure that Youth have spaces that allow their views and concerns to impact policy, national development, and actions. As such, the program builds on human capital development in the civic space, Inclusion and promoting justice, reducing barriers to youth participation and promoting youth voices. 

• Youth have a clear open space (physical and virtual) and their voices are documented and forming part of policy and programs at the national level. 
• Citizens' Power has a dedicated team that is driving change through online research and leading meaningful dialogues among youth and government agencies on specific issues affecting young people especially young vulnerable people. 
• The Youth Civic Engagement Institute has attracted international support and funding to sustain actions 
• Liberian Youth and Civic organizations recognize and attest to the value addition of the center. 

If youth have the right space, constructive dialogues focus on youth needs and aspirations, and if power holders have timely data and information and they can utilize this data for decision-making, youth agitation will reduce on social media, and constructive engagement will lead to peace, development and a socially responsible governance system that facilitates open dialogue on development initiatives, especially for all youths. 

Presently, the pilot of this project was conducted using voluntary actions such as mapping of organizations, desk review of existing programs and their gaps, training (physical) and Zoom discussions. 

The result from this was strategic and pointed towards the expressed need in this project. This is why the project wants to transform this idea into a broader support system and help drive change. 

Social inclusion, and inclusion of women, children, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups is a core need of the Citizens' Power approach. We have zero tolerance for discrimination as our values see diversity as a human right and a moral obligation towards the fight against inequality. 

As a social innovation, we provide services such as training, learning spaces, tools and knowledge for vulnerable youth whose voices remain crucial and critical to national development. 

There is a huge expectation that a review of the approach will develop in the Business model in which the spaces can sustain themselves through consultancy we may provide to political bodies and individuals with our data and information, advisory services and promote social accountability in the governance architecture in Liberia and across the region. 

Further to this is the Entrepreneurship component where we work with organizations to build their young people and support them through the learning and exchange processes in the next phase of the project. 

Once the center is established, three products will be used to sustain the program:

• Training Spaces
• Online training cost 
• Governance Consultancy on Youth Engagement in Development 

This is going to be reviewed in the coming months and a business model developed as part of this project where SOLVE helps to support the model. 

In the Piloting of this innovation, we once requested that participants in our training pay 15.00 USD for three days of advocacy training. Of the 100 participants that registered, 75 of them paid different amounts.  The training grouped the participants into a group of 15 people and it was a great success. We organized a series of this training for almost five months and we raised more than 500.00 United States Dollars. Our biggest challenge was space, the lack of a website, and the quality of the hall we were using.