2-day Conflict Management and Peace Building Workshop underway at Bolgatanga

25/10/2011                              

The Director at the Centre for Continuing Education and Inter-disciplinary Research (CCEIR) of the University for Development Studies, Dr. Seidu Al-hassan has stressed the need for all stakeholders and Ghanaians to come together and fight against violent conflicts. He disclosed that about one million people lose their lives and many more suffer non-fatal injuries of violent conflict. According to him, what is more worrying is the fact that non-combatants mostly women and children are increasingly becoming the major targets and victims of violent conflict. The situation he added has as well dented the image of the north. Dr Al-hassan has therefore called on all to act as agent of peace in their respective areas to bring development especially to the North Dr. Al-hassan was speaking at a two day workshop on conflict management and peace building for poverty reduction in Northern Ghana at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. The current level of peace building interruptions coupled with demands for new approaches has presented a fundamental strategic challenge for government and NGOs to define approaches to peace building and conflict management. All communities in Ghana need a holistic understanding of violence including all forms of discriminations, unfair distribution of wealth, and unequal educational opportunities and access to resources. It is against this background that the Ghana Commission for UNESCO in partnership with the Centre for Continuing Education and Inter-disciplinary Research at the University for Development Studies has organized a 2 day workshop on conflict management and peace building for poverty reduction in Northern Ghana. The workshop among other things was to serve as a platform for participants to deliberate issues on conflict and its implications for poverty reduction in Ghana. It was also aim at creating an interface between academia’s and practitioners to discuss current theoretical and practical transformations in peace building and conflict management to secure peace. The Director of CCEIR, Dr Seidu Alhassan said as part of effort to address the violent conflict, the centre under the support of Ghana Commission for UNESCO is organizing series of Regional Conferences in Bolgatanga, Wa and Tamale to offer chances for the general public to participate in peace building crusade. He mentioned that a National Peace Council has been established with the support of the UNDP to set up regional and district councils to engage stakeholders to find solutions to problems before they escalate. At the level of Academia, he explained that UNDP has supported the Institute of Adult Education for the Ghana Education Service to mainstream peace issues in the school curriculum at the basic and secondary level. Dr. Al-hassan said all these effort will assist towards promoting learning and sharing of approaches in conflict management and peace building with the view to providing recommendations to government. The Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo said government has frown upon conflicts because of the negative implications and undoubtedly, millions of cedis that would have been used on development projects have been spent on deploying security personnel and rebuilding efforts in conflict zones. He mentioned that government is ready to work with all interest parties in the conflict areas to bring peace and pave way from accelerated growth and development of such areas. Mr. Woyongo acknowledged the financial contribution of international organizations such as UNESCO, SIDA, and USAID and urged them to continuously assist in peace related programmes to ensure global peace.

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