EMPOWERING WOMEN FOR PEACE-BUILDING - WANEP TAKES A STEP (DG, SEPT 20, 2011, PAGE 11)

WOMEN have often been noted as being among the vulnerable groups during violent conflicts. Apart from being victims of abuse, they lose their economic livelihoods, as well as their families. Some scholars in conflict and development issues however opine that women must play active roles in peace-building efforts in their communities so they could help create an environment safe for them and their families. Agreeing with this line of thought, the United Nations (UN) Security Council, in 2000, adopted Resolution 1325, which stresses the need for women to have “equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.” In an attempt to give meaning to this resolution, the West African Network for Peace-building (WANEP), Ghana, has been implementing a number of initiatives aimed at incorporating women in Northern Ghana into conflict resolution processes. Key among these initiatives is a series of training programmes on peace-building and conflict early warning system for selected women from areas in the north where conflicts are simmering or in its manifest stages. Like many other parts of the country, Northern Ghana has had its share of communal and political conflicts, fuelled by ethnic and chieftaincy disputes, as well as disputes over land and other resources. WANEP’s objective is therefore to build the capacity of some selected women in the north to support peace-building by promoting dialogue among the women folk. In this direction, WANEP, in partnership with the Canadian High Commission, has been imparting to these women the skills needed to facilitate conflict resolution, such as negotiation, dialogue and mediation. Through the training, the women also learn to appreciate the nature, sources, types and stages in conflict and its related nuances. In addition, WANEP-Ghana also develops the skills of the women to identify and pick up conflict early warning signals and communicate it to appropriate institutions for early response. The essence of this is to prevent the escalation of conflicts that could have been resolved during its latent stages. At one of such training workshops in Buipe, the capital of the Central Gonja district, Mr Theophilus Dokurugu, a board member of WANEP-Ghana, told the Daily Graphic that women were usually better placed to identify signs of impending danger. “They easily realise that there is conflict when the men begin to act in very unusual ways, such as meeting at odd times and giving unnecessary caution to their wives in relation to how they relate with other people,” he explained. Mr Dokurugu again mentioned that promoting dialogue among feuding groups is likely to be more successful when the women from these groups are willing to talk, socialise and demonstrate to the men that they are willing to co-exist in spite of their differences. “If you go to the market and the women are so embittered that they are not even willing to sit side by side to do business, ensuring dialogue becomes more and more difficult,” he stated. The Buipe peace workshop, which was supported by the district assembly, involved 30 women, 24 of whom were selected from the Lebu and Jinapor gates of the Buipe chieftaincy divide. Buipe was selected as one of the beneficiary districts of WANEP’s peace initiatives due to a protracted chieftaincy dispute that has threatened on a number of occasions to destroy the fragile peace in the area. Mr Justin Bayor, the National Network Co-ordinator of WANEP-Ghana, mentioned that apart from imparting skills to the women in Buipe, WANEP also creates an enabling environment for them to have frank discussions about some of the thorny issues that mostly spark or fuel conflicts in the area. “During the training, the women go into facilitated dialogue sessions, during which they document the issues, concerns and fears of women from both chieftaincy factions and seek a way forward in order to build bridges amongst them,” he intimated. Speaking at the training programme, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Ms Trudy Kernighan said although women were vulnerable in conflict situations, they could also be powerful agents for peace-building. She said the need for women’s full and equal participation in peace-building was not a mere wish, but a fundamental objective of the UN’s Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security that must be fulfilled.