In Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, women and young people face enormous challenges. Little or no access to education, prevailing poverty and high illiteracy levels all help to ensure that women and young people continue to be excluded from decision-making processes. Even when presented with opportunities to participate, women often shy away from these challenges, their lack of self-esteem driven by a strong sense of traditional roles for men and for women, and their lack of confidence to express their needs and interests means their views are often not taken into account. Similarly, young people have to contend with a culture which favours older men and, often isolated from decision making, find it difficult to express themselves and frequently resort to violence.
This project builds on work previously carried out by Alert and its partners to increase the participation of women in peacebuilding processes. Alert contributes to effective political participation by women and young people in West Africa by enabling community activists to facilitate training and action planning in order to build skills and confidence and thereby a culture of voicing needs and negotiating for positive changes. At the same time, Alert, through community radio stations, encourages debate in communities on the role of women and young people in public decision-making processes and uses information gleaned as a result of the project to inform and influence national, regional and international policy reform around inclusive participation.