In 2018, after the end of a 10-year presidential term, Search played a crucial role in mitigating election-related violence and strengthening democratic and accountable processes.
With funding from the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund (WPF), our initial project “Enhancing Social Dialogue and Political Engagement across Ethnic and Political lines” strengthened the participation of citizens in the governance of their constituencies, thereby improving political commitment, accountability, and development spending.
To achieve this, we created public policy debates among election candidates, which were filmed and widely broadcast. These debates provided a unique opportunity for communities with limited access to information to deepen their understanding of the candidates’ policy positions and put them in a better place to make informed choices. As a result of these debates, citizens’ demands for concrete actions to develop their constituencies and implement related community programs led to the creation, with elected officials, of a five-year community governance plan.
With these foundations already laid, we are now embarking on the second phase of our project: “Town Hall Meetings.” Together with our CSO partners, we monitor progress in the implementation of the Constituency Action Plans (CAPs). Also, we continue to provide platforms for dialogue and collaboration between elected officials and citizens and to leverage our radio programming to amplify, reach, and promote increased engagement and access to information.
We focus in particular on building the capacity of women and youth to place them at the center of this process. To this end, twenty-eight civil society organizations led by youth and women received training in accountability and governance processes, leadership, conflict transformation, non-adversarial communication, and engagement techniques. CSOs now have the necessary tools to take on community spokespersons’ role to voice their demands and concerns and to promote greater accountability and transparency beyond the project.
“Since the parliamentary debates of 2018, Search is telling us a new story of politics in Sierra Leone. Today, they are again there to give citizens the opportunity to assess the commitments and performance of the MPs we have elected.” – Edward K Bassie Youth Chief Koribondo.
