Youth Empowerment Synergy, Ghana (YES Ghana) on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, held a forum in Damongo in the Savannah Region for the youth to prepare them for a violence-free election.
The forum which was under the theme: “Deepening Youth-Led Strategies for Peace and Development” brought together about 200 young people from all constituencies in the Savannah Region to engage with duty bearers such as the police, the Electoral Commission, the National Youth Authority, the NCCE, the Peace Council, and religious bodies.
The Executive Director of YES Ghana, Mr. Emmanuel Edudzie in his welcome address said YES Ghana has been implementing the Young Peace Ambassadors (YPA) project to support young activists with the skills and capacity they need to collaborate and facilitate community cohesion in preventing conflict and electoral violence.
He said, “Since the 2008 elections, the YPA project has been deepening youth leadership in peacebuilding and conflict transformation in various regions across the country through voluntary participation, collaboration, and networking.”
According to him, the Youth Forum is being held in the Northern, Savannah, and Upper East Regions to serve as a rallying point and a platform for young people to learn from each other, debate, build alliances, collaborate, share information, and challenge perspectives related to their active engagement in policy actions related to progress towards attaining peace before, during and after the 2020 elections.
The Deputy Savannah Regional Minister, Mr. Samuel Yayu Tika admonished the youth to desist from allowing themselves to be used as tools for violence.
He also called on the Electoral Commission to be fair and transparent saying he believes that “if the Electoral Commission does its work well and have at the back of their minds that they want to ensure free and fair elections, we will have peace at the end of the day and everybody will accept the results of the elections.”