By Zeinabou Walet Mohamed Ali   

Faced with security challenges and a shrinking civic and democratic space in the Sahel, young people have expressed a strong desire to increase their political leadership and participation in democratic decision-making processes as well as efforts aimed at conflict prevention in their countries.

Countries such as Mali – characterized by political crises, corruption and a deep disconnect between the will of the people and the decisions made by those in power – face major political and security challenges.

The Sahel region has now become a space in reconstruction, where it is crucial for young people to be politically involved in order to influence decisions and practices. This commitment will enable them to participate effectively in the development of political and institutional reforms that will lead to the establishment of truly democratic states with strong independent institutions. 

To help achieve these objectives, the Gorée Institute has developed an innovative solution to strengthen the skills of young Sahelian leaders in political leadership and the prevention of electoral conflict, to help us participate effectively as active agents of positive change, and to make us high-performance facilitators.

It was in this framework that I benefited, on behalf of the Alliance des Jeunes Leaders Pour la Paix et la Stabilité au Sahel-AJLPSS, from the Training of Trainers on political leadership and electoral conflict management from July 17 to 21 in Dakar, Senegal. The training was initiated by the Gorée Institute as part of its Power of Dialogue (POD) program.

“During the course of five days of intensive training, we young people from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal were empowered with facilitation techniques to enable us to be more productive in our various countries.” 

Based on a learning model combining theory and practice, this training of trainers from the Gorée Institute engaged and prepared this group of competent young instructors to replicate this learning in our respective countries on the themes of political leadership and prevention of electoral conflict.

As soon as we returned to Mali, and in keeping with the commitment we had made to the Gorée Institute to disseminate the knowledge we had acquired within our community, we Malian participants immediately began taking the necessary action to organize our various restitution and training workshops. I therefore decided to act as facilitator and initiator and successfully organized my restitution workshop in Timbuktu on August 26, 2023.

Indeed, I chose to hold this session in my native region of Timbuktu, because I  believes that given the security context of the region and especially in this period of crisis where the population is going through difficult and quite painful times, it is a duty for me to contribute to the efforts to stabilize this region by equipping young people with knowledge enabling them to participate more fully in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. 

The workshop gathered over twenty young leaders from various civil society associations in the famous city of Timbuktu, including: the Réseau National de la Jeunesse du Mali – RENAJEM, the Association Démocratie 101 , the Réseau des Jeunes des Partis Politiques du Mali – RJPPM, the YELEEN Association, the Association APFJF and the Association des Jeunes pour le développement et la cohésion sociale – AJDCS.

The workshop was therefore an opportunity to consolidate the efforts already made by these committed young people, who are involved in resolving their community’s problems and, above all, help them in taking action to restore the climate of peace and cohesion in the Timbuktu region. 

At the completion of this program and its activities, accreditation certificates were awarded to us, as Malian participants in the DFF, for having completed the training of trainers and for having successfully restituted this training at local level.  This accreditation ceremony took place on September 7, 2023 at the Bamako Governorate, by the Director of the Institut de Gorée and the Director of Cabinet of the District Governor.

In sum, these accreditations testify to our various achievements and our commitment as young Malian leaders working to promote peaceful communities where young people are the pioneers.  These training sessions were just the beginning, as we plan to organize others for the benefit of a greater number of young people throughout the country.

Zeinabou Walet Mohamed Ali