Youth and Women Media Platform for Peace (YWMPP) – Platforms for Discussing Peace and Social Cohesion among Youth, Women and People with Disability in the Communities.

Over 5,000 youth, women and other social media followers across South Sudan and globally engaged through Youth and Women Media Platform for Peace (YWMPP), Amalna South Sudan social media campaign, to reduce incidences of electoral violence, hate speech, ethnic contempt in social media and public space during electoral period in South Sudan. 

This virtual campaign equipped the participants with knowledge, tools, and a support-system to tackle social issues of exclusion, violence, and conflict in their communities with focus to prepare a conducive environment before, during and after elections. Participants also strengthened their conflict transformation, advocacy and campaigning skills during the 4 months period.

AMALNA South Sudan, created five social media platforms that make up the Youth and Women Media Platforms for Peace (YWMPP) under the project: Promotion of Peace and Social Cohesion to Mitigate Electoral Violence in South Sudan (PSCMEV) whose objective was to reduce incidences of electoral violence, hate speech, ethnic contempt in social media and public space during electoral period in South Sudan. 

YMPP was set up to share content to influence voices of youth and women led organizations including persons with disabilities, sharing experiences and views to shape and influence policies and create peaceful and conductive environment for improved social cohesion and peace building before, during and after elections.

Platforms 

The YWMPP platforms created include: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, WhatsApp and google meet that was used for webinars and other trainings. These aimed to increase awareness and civic education on impacts of social issues that threaten peace in the society like hate speech, misinformation and role of youth, women and people with disabilities in decision making during elections among others. 

Through these platforms, Amalna South Sudan aimed to engaged online followers through texting, posting, use of images including visual arts, short videos, and webinar trainings.

Facebook

The Facebook Page account was created under the name “Youth and Woman Media Platform for Peace-YWMPP” and the first activity on the page was registered on January 4, 2024 when the profile picture was put up. By April 30, 2024, the page had a total of 4,660 followers and 2,343 interactions from January when the first post was shared. A total of 74 posts had been shared in the four months assessed and they attracted responses from a mix of both male and female Facebook users. 

X (Formerly Twitter)

The account was created under the name “Youth and Woman Media Platform for Peace-YWMPP”. By April 30, 2024, a total of 85 posts had been made by the account on the X platform. The total posts attracted a combined 757 views from January to April.  

Instagram

The account was created under the name “Youth and Women Media Platform for Peace-YWMPP”. Activity on the account was first registered on January 4, 2024. In the last four months, a total of 87 posts had been made by the account. The posts attracted a total of 51 organic likes from January to April. 

Webinars

The seven webinars were part of a total of eight that were supposed to be conducted during the project period running from October 2023 to March 2024, targeting 45 youth and women led organization representatives. The webinars were conducted in response to one of the project outputs: Youth-led peace message campaigns reach urban, rural, and hard-to-reach communities to enhance political tolerance and understanding. 

Themes

The webinars were conducted under several themes/topics that aligned with the overall project objective around peacebuilding, civic space and mitigating election violence. The topics of discussion in the seven webinars conducted were:

1. Enhancing transparency and accountability to ensure free and fair elections in South Sudan

2. Legal advocacy for civic space protection in South Sudan

3. Promoting media literacy to combat misinformation and hate speech.

4. Engaging youth in civic participation

5. Role of media in promoting social cohesion and mitigating election violence

6. Engaging of women in elections

7. Roles and actions of civil society organizations in mitigating electoral violence in South Sudan before, during and after elections.

The webinars were well attended with each averaging about 28 participants. A combined total of 197 participants attended the seven webinars with 150 (representing 76%) being male while 47 (representing 24%) were female. The youth (18-34 years) made up the highest percentage with over 70% of the participants

CONCLUSIONS

The Facebook page was the biggest online platform with many users and also the most engaging among the five during the period. The platform had many comments/interactions from the users. There was use of engaging and informative content, including articles, infographics, clear videos, and testimonials, highlighting the importance of peace and civic engagement during elections.

The overall tone the in posts was positive, with a significant majority of comments expressing support for initiatives addressing the issue across the platforms.

Voter education and peaceful elections featured most as the most discussed topics across the other platforms. Several online participants sought out to know about the role of Voter cards and National IDs in the election process.