OUR PROGRAMS
We are a good governance and research institution working to promote democracy, transparency, accountability, human rights and participatory governance in Liberia.
Naymote believes that a purposeful and effective civil society is needed to set the national policy agenda, stimulate sound and healthy grassroots’ response to governance issues, and influence the uneven power dynamics that characterize the relationship between Liberia’s citizens and government.
The President Meter Project
To improve public accountability and transparency in the management of the country’s governance processes under the CDC-led government, the institution in 2018 established the President Meter Project; using an independent monitoring and tracking tool on the performance of governance against promises made during and after the elections.
For the last two years, January 2018 to January 2020, the institution has tracked and rated 92 promises of which 7 promises were completed constituting 8%, 38 promises are ongoing constituting 41%, and 47 promises have not started or not rated constituting 51% due to the lack of information to assess progress made towards implementation. This tracking was undertaken against the assumption that citizens care deeply about whether their government has followed through on what it originally promised. This independent assessment provides citizens the tools to cut through the misinformation that so often plagues political discourse surrounding the status of government programs and processes. Please read the PMP two years report here.
Youth Legislative Policy Dialogue
NAYMOTE also has a Youth Legislative Policy Dialogue to promote the culture of legislative openness and responsiveness in Liberia. Over 1000 youth leaders across Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Bong and Nimba Counties participated in 30 dialogues held since 2018 and 30 lawmakers attended and spoke at these events. Young people are actively engaging in legislative advocacy, lawmakers are hosting town hall meetings, producing annual legislative reports to their constituents because of the opportunity provided them through these dialogues.
It was through these dialogues, the institution realized that young people need to deepen their understanding of the workings of the Legislature to be able to hold their elected officials accountable which led to the development of the legislative advocacy handbook. The Legislative Advocacy Handbook is educating citizens on the workings of the legislature and providing them effective advocacy strategies.
The Legislative Accountability Project
Like the President Meter project, the institution is monitoring and tracking 12 lawmakers’ campaign promises across five counties; Montserrado, Bong, Nimba, Grand Gedeh and Rivergee. During the first year in 2019, the institution identified, monitored, tracked and rated 97 campaign promises from the 12 lawmakers, of which, 10 are rated completed, 65 promises are ongoing, 9 promises have not started and 13 campaign promises are not rated due to lack of available information. Among the 10 completed promises, community roads, bridges’ rehabilitations and construction of town halls accounted for 6 of those completed projects, while the formation of district development councils accounts for 3 promises and the construction of one health center accounts for 1 of the many promises.
The County Accountability and Advocacy Team (CAAT)
This project is monitoring, tracking, advocating, and educating citizens in six counties for the effective management of the County Social Development Funds and publicly funded projects. This process includes documenting and creating awareness on county sitting resolutions and implementation, and the county budget processes. The institution is working through the County Project Management Team, District Development Councils, Civil Society, Community based organizations and local stakeholders across the six counties using a range of citizen-led accountability practices and tools such as: participatory planning, participatory budgeting, social audit, community scorecard, citizen report card, and participatory monitoring and evaluation of public services to foster local development and accountability.
Young Political Leadership School Africa
The Young Political Leadership School Africa (YPLS Africa) is a political organizing, leadership development and campaign training program for emerging young African leaders established in April 2016 by Naymote Partners for Democratic Development.The program convenes young politicians and youth activists with a passion for supporting good governance, policy advocacy, fostering transparency in government, and mobilizing their communities to ensure that government officials are accountable to the people. The YPLS Africa challenge, inspires, motivate and spark new insights for participants to become transformational and/or servant leaders in their generation. Read more here.
The Young Women Political Empowerment, Mentorship and Leadership Program
This project is building an enabling environment for young women to participate in politics by: increasing community and civic understanding of gender equality and women’s right to political participation, building young women technical capacity to mobilize resources to fund campaigns and participate in political decision-making; providing mentorship support for young women to pursue political leadership opportunities; and supporting women to build political alliances and networks across sectors and beyond national boundaries. 75 emerging women leaders from across the 15 counties of Liberia, 5 per county have been empowered and are progressing in their counties from the project.
Advocacy for Electoral Reform Project
This project aimed at utilizing legislative measures to achieve several recommended electoral reforms that require constitutional amendment through public referendum. 17 recommendations from both the Constitution and the New Elections Law of 1986 of Liberia have been made under this project to the 54th Legislature of Liberia. The project has been able to increase the participation of citizens in key decision-making processes by bringing together both lawmakers and their constituents to review recommendations made from observation of past electioneering processes in Liberia and make suggestions as well.
Of these 17 recommendations, 4 have been passed (Reduction in the tenure of the President, Representative, Senators and change in the election date from October to November) by both the upper and lower houses of the Liberian Legislature and pending referendum.
Community Action Platform Against COVID 19
Naymote Partners for Democratic Development drawing its experience from Ebola quickly mobilized local communities and engaged them through 45 locally based organizations to help respond to the fight. The project had two outcomes all built around awareness creation and mobilizing community resilience anchored on experience and available information on the virus.
The project increased grassroots response to the fight against COVID-19, enhanced community engagements and ownership. As a result of the Project, ‘’there is an increased awareness in communities about the virus, project communities are observing preventive measures, some citizens are considering voluntary testing and in general, the level of denial is reducing due to our engagements with them. Project communities have openly engaged and appreciated the project especially its partnership framework and innovation for the efforts and health messages disseminated to keep their communities safe and well as they participate in activities and provide their voices; sharing their experiences during discussions’’.
By educating young people through student debates, canvasing, bus ride, sports, theatre and other participatory activities, NAYMOTE is spreading the lessons of tolerance, accountability and respect to the generations that will define Liberia’s political culture in the coming decades. The institution is registered as a national non-for profit organization and is member of several national and international organizations including, the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, the Africa Democracy Forum, the World Movement for Democracy, the Bus Federation and the Organizations of Parliamentary Openness, etc.
The institution is managed by highly qualify managers with over 16 years of experience working to promote positive youth and community engagements in support of democratic governance and sustainable development.
Through these interventions, participants including, ordinary citizens, minority and vulnerable community groups, local government actors and civil society leaders are being consulted, many yielding impact participation and support generating commitments for monitoring the management of the county social development fund, the county service centers, publicly funded projects within projects’ locations and lobbying to reform the budget law for a stand-alone CSDF. Participants are learning about the national budget processes, allocation, usage, and management in the national budget process using the citizens budget guide to the national budget and holding their leaders accountable.
The various town hall meetings and the Youth Legislative Policy Dialogues providing opportunities for citizens to hear from their elected and appointed leaders, sharing communication from button to top and enhancing inclusive governance, etc.
ACTIVITIES
STRATEGIES
