Young Liberians Are Inspirational For the Future of Liberia

Monrovia – The lead lecturer at the Young Political leadership School second semester Jeff Fox says young people participating in the YPLS program are the inspiration for the future of Liberia.

Report by Al-Varney Rogers alvarney.rogersfrontpageonline.com

“They are inspirational for the future hope of Liberia, if you get young people like this into leadership role in five, ten to fifteen years, you will have a better country,” Fox said.

For the past three days Fox has been enhancing their skills in leadership, public speaking, developing campaign message, citizen engagement and campaign planning.

“It was a fabulous experience, I have interacted with youth activist all over the world and this the first I have the pleasure of working with youth political activist in Liberia, I found them very creative, very hardworking, keen to learn new idea and new strategy, leadership, public speaking, developing campaign message, citizen engagement, campaign planning,” Fox added.

YPLS Lead lecturer hopes that the National Youth Movement for Transparent Election attracts funding to replicate the program across Liberia.

“My hope NAYMOTE is able to attract long term support to move this program across the country; this will affect generation change and produce new leaders,” Fox said. 

The training lead by fox comprise of Seventy five young political leaders from cross sections of political parties, university student leaderships and independent candidates who are passionate about improving Liberia’s democracy and electoral politics will undergo 5 days intensive training in Campaign Planning, Campaign Communications, Voter Contact, Message Development-Creating Powerful and Persuasive Messages, Citizen Engagement, Participatory Decision-Making, Leadership Styles and Skills, etc. Participants will also engage in a Mock Election Campaign Event, and more.

NAYMOTE’s Executive Director, Eddie Jarwolo said, the YPLS aims to strengthen and contribute to Liberia’s democracy through building the capacity of young political leaders that can make political institutions more effective players in the political system of the country. He emphasized that the initiative is a part of his organization’s (NAYMOTE) democracy enhancement program for Liberia.

H.E. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf serve as keynote speaker for the opening of the YPLS second semester, on the topic: Young Political Leaders and the Transformation of Liberia; while the Ambassadors of the Embassies of the United States of America, United Kingdom, Sweden and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General are expected to address the opening ceremony.

Jeff Fox, Political and Communications Strategists, Conflict to Peace International Consulting based in the USA will serve as lead facilitator.

NAYMOTE-Partners for Democratic Development has launched the Young Political Leadership School (YPLS) in Liberia to respond to election challenges. This program seeks to empower young Liberians who are youth wing leaders in political parties and political support based groups.

The program targets young independent political candidates who have the will to serve and need a deeper understanding of political and governance processes in the country.

The program aims at strengthening the capacity of young political campaign managers, campaign organizers, voters’ base managers, civic educators as well as public relation officers.

The young leadership program was firstly organized in April of this year under the theme “Organizing Political Campaigns’.

The YPLS is a development program designed by to empower young political leaders with the tools and knowledge needed to support the development of research-based campaign platforms, effectively build and manage voters base, lead effective political campaigns, engage voters, to and deliver issue based campaign messages.

The YPLS wants to ensure that political platforms reflect the views of the people and electoral campaigns are organized based on standards and are free from violence; so as to increase citizens’ trust in political parties, improve Liberia’s democracy and electoral politics.