In December 2015, the Security Council of the United Nations adopted resolution 2250 about “Youth, Peace and Security.” It solicited global case studies on youths’ contributions to consolidating peace and resolving conflict within their national borders. Côte d’Ivoire was chosen as a case study because more than 3 (three) out of 4 (four) individuals register at less than 35 years of age. For more than twenty-five years, Ivorian youth has played an active role in the successive socio-political and military crises that the country has endured. The crisis peaked during the bloody post-electoral episode of 2010-2011. Since then, democracy has been in peril due to Ivorian society's persistent fault lines and sectarian divides, fueling a latent conflict. Youths are exposed to manipulation by political leaders, reinforcing the challenges they face to engage civically in democratic collective action.
On September 2, 2023, the Youth Debate Forum contributed to a significant accomplishment in advancing democratic values by leading a team of researchers to collect electoral data surveys that serve as a feedback mechanism to refine and enhance the Ivorian democratic system. It collected 575 survey questionnaires in the capital city of Abidjan. The goal was to methodically get data analysis that reflects the Youth’s electoral choices, values, attitudes, and behavior and shed light on trends in youth voter sentiment in the hope of crafting an understanding of the youth electorate’s expectations, thereby assisting in data-driven decision-making.