From May 8-10, 2023 MIDRIFT from Kenya with technical support from the Danish Institute against Torture facilitated three-day capacity-building training to explore effective strategies for violence prevention and promote sustainable leadership development in Liberia. Knowledge and skills gained from the training along with other prior advocacy experiences from the Liberian context enabled LAPS to formulate and implement a series of election violence prevention activities before the elections ranging from establishing collaboration with law enforcement agencies to the capacity building of community level actors and appearances on popular radio talk shows. Weeks before the elections, LAPS trained its staff, organized them, and launched an election violence prevention task force made up of members of its Staff, collaborating community structures (Community Action Committee, Community General Network) and partner organizations and other stakeholders who are also members of the Intersectoral Violence Prevention Forum (IVPF).
The task force communicated violence prevention-related messages and peace education information at community levels as well as appropriately collaborated with law enforcement agencies. Moreover, political leaders and other duty bearers including, the national election commissions were constructively engaged and targeted with advocacy at various levels through high-profile meetings, radio talk shows, etc. During one of LAPS’ “highly listened to” live radio talk shows on (ok fm), election violence prevention messages reached an audience of about 1 million persons in 6 counties of Liberia: Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Lofa, Sinoe, and Margibi. Also, over 871 interactions were made online via Facebook(consisting of over 380 live, 267 comments, 180 likes, 44 shares)
