According to the National Elections Commission (NEC), Liberia’s current number of first-time voters is just over 20 percent. This figure demonstrates the need to prioritize civic voter education, especially for first-time voters in rural communities. On 21-22 June, Accountability Lab Liberia hosted a training session to build the civic and voter education capacity of 30 journalists and leaders of youth-led organizations from Counties including Bong, Grand Bassa, Lofa, Margibi Montserrado, and Nimba. The training session aimed to equip the participants with skills to lead creative civic engagement campaigns and build working relationships for cross-collaboration, learning, and advocacy. The training focused on democracy, civic responsibility, rights-based advocacy, non-violence, peaceful engagement, dialogue, leadership, and youth participation.

Forming part of a series of activities implemented by Accountability Lab Liberia through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED): Civic Education Project, this activity aims to provide hard-to-reach communities with civic and voter education, promote non-violence, and encourage electoral accountability during and after Liberia’s general election set for 10 October 2023. Throughout the training, participants learn how to raise community awareness by conducting door-to-door visits, radio talk shows, jingles, and dialogues with politically marginalized people, including youth, women, and differently-abled persons. This campaign could potentially reach over 50,000 Liberians.

Christiana Mabande, a reporter at Radio Peace in Margibi County, described the training as having an immense impact. According to her, the initiative by Accountability Lab has provided her with the right tools to support her work as a journalist and educate her community about their civic responsibilities. “Before this training, I didn’t know what advocacy meant or what citizens should be doing during elections, but now, I have learned what actions to implement to advance advocacy. Additionally, I learned how to set and evaluate goals for campaigning, alongside how to design strategies to yield positive change,” Mabande said.“The training didn’t just focus on civic education, but also on the political participation of women and youth,” said Steve Quoi, Executive Director of the Center for Reform & Development (CRD) from Nimba County. Genesis Kolliemene, the Executive Director of Youth Positive Transformation Initiative from Bong County, described the training as “extensive.” He said the training provided beneficial resources and reinforced his confidence to carry out more civic and voter initiatives.

The post-test conducted after the training showed that 90 percent of the participants fully understood the topics covered and that they felt equipped to implement civic and voter education activities within their communities, as compared to the pre-test, which showed that 70 percent of participants had limited knowledge on the topics covered before the training.