There is a general lack of youth engagement in the electoral process in Africa. The main reasons behind these are inadequate capacity and knowledge (technical and general) of the democratic process. Hence, it is imperative to create a platform for sharing good practices for the purpose of knowledge building. A holistic approach towards creating awareness and knowledge about elections will alone inspire the young people to join the electoral process.

Keeping these principles in mind, each month four days of classes are conducting for imparting knowledge about elections for the youth in schools. In between these four days, the students are also given homework in order to encourage them to keep exploring the different aspects related to elections.

Also, as each region or for that matter country is different in terms of the social structure, culture, mindset etc, comprehensive customisation is done to the shared best practices before implementing them in Tunisia. For carrying out this level of customisation and tailoring, guidance and support from experts is taken and this aspect continues to be an aspect of high importance.
Participants in educational programs are given paid internships in order to encourage them to join the electoral processes as this can act as a catalyst for involving the youth.

The youth is also guided through social media and it has helped in garnering participative response and involvement from the young and future voters.
Hence , sharing platforms are of great importance as they can act as a guiding light by providing the teachings from the experiences of the other countries and enhancing the electoral systems across the globe.

Ms. Shana Kaiser,
Program Manager, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance