Young people are actively engaging in training sessions to strengthen community conflict prevention and ensure peaceful elections in The Gambia.
The regions are preparing for 2025–2026 electoral cycles.
The training focused on equipping youth with skills in mediation, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), early warning systems, and dialogue facilitation to prevent election-related violence.
The training, which also focuses on early response, is supported by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) -The Gambia and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The training aims to strengthen community-level conflict prevention and early response mechanisms. It aims to ensure peaceful democratic processes by building local capacity to identify and mitigate potential conflicts early.
Youth from across the country have continued to receive the training to act as peace builders and early warning fellows.
This initiative, which is part of effort to prevent election violence The Gambia, is often called the Leadership Training, Mentoring and Structured Engagement Programme for Youth and Women in Peace building trainings.
The training is implemented through the National Youth Council (NYC) of The Gambia and involves key stakeholders such as National Council for Civic Education (NCCE) and National Coordination Centre for Response Mechanisms (NCCRM).
As of March 2026, in preparation for critical electoral processes, young people are actively being trained as peace builders and early warning fellows.
The training aims to strengthen community efforts in conflict prevention and early response, particularly focusing on mitigating election-related tensions, hate speech, and misinformation.
The peace-building activities of the programme are particularly active in areas experiencing high election-related tensions. The training sessions are supported by the Ministry of Youth & Sports and organisations like CRS.
Similarly, in Ghana, young people are being trained to recognize early warning signs of radicalization and to counter hate speech.
The training sessions focus on mediation and dialogue facilitation skills, gender-sensitive peace building and designing community-led peace action plans.
The youth are trained to act as "sensors" at the grassroots level, monitoring and reporting potential conflict triggers in real-time during the electioneering period.
In Nigeria, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) is bolstering early warning and response (EWER) mechanisms ahead of election scenarios.
Furthermore, specialised training on election observation, analysis and reporting is being facilitated by organizations such as the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) and KAIPTC.
