ALL holds nat’l youth confab
A two-day National Youth Peace Building Conference gets underway in Monrovia on Tuesday, April 24th. The youth conference is organized by Accountability Lab Liberia in partnership with the Swedish Embassy and the United Nations Mission in Liberia.
About 200 young Liberians from the 15 counties of the country will come together to deliberate on the critical challenges relating to peace and security and to generate concrete plans for youth engagement ahead of the October 2017 general and presidential elections.
Participants at the conference will include both young men and women from a variety of groups including the physically challenged and the less fortunate.The Liberian National Youth Peace building Conference- which is the first of its kind in the country- will provide the opportunity for young people to engage in five “Work Labs” and deliberate on issues of Economic Prosperity and Entrepreneurship; Diversity, Tolerance and Reconciliation; Arts, Sports and Culture; Elections and Electoral Processes; and Integrity and Anti-Corruption. Among these other critical issues, the conference will also highlight women rights, gender equality and gender equity.
Conversations in the five Work Labs will be facilitated by motivational speakers and expert facilitators from both Liberia and Sweden including former Swedish Ambassador to Liberia, Lena Nordstrom, Paynesville City Mayor, Cyvette Gibson, Ms. HawaGolakai and Ms. Gwendolyn Myers among others. The Conference will also host Mr. Van Vicker, a famous Liberian movie star; and Mapei, a well-known Swedish-Liberian musician.
It is envisioned that the conference will become an annual State of Youth in Liberia conference as a platform for young people to reflect and collaborate in support of the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 which promotes youth representation in decision making at all levels in society.
About Accountability Lab:
The Conference is organized by Accountability Lab Liberia (www.accountabilitylab.org), an organization that is building a new generation of active citizens and responsible leaders in Liberia and around the world. The Lab develops creative campaigns, runs a highly competitive two-year accountability incubator for young civil society change-makers and recently established Liberia’s first co-working andinnovation space, called iCampus
