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Annual Report 2001

Program Report:
Capacity Building Training and Support to Members - Emmanuel Bombande & Sam Doe, Coordinators

The Capacity Building Program seeks to strengthen grass root, community based peacebuilding organizations in West Africa. More often than not, non-governmental organizations in West Africa are built around individuals. Consequently, the organizations end when the individual either dies or moves on to other activities. Also, productivity is stifled because of the lack of an enabling environment where each one in the organization can maximize potentials. The thrust of this program is to build compentency and assist in program design and institution building.

Objectives
· Conduct local, national and regional training in various areas of peacebuilding
· Produce and disseminate resource materials for peacebuilding
· Provide internship services so as to mentor emerging practitioners
· Assist peacebuilding organizations in program design and impact assessment
· Launch a permanent training institute in 2002

Highlights of Activities

WANEP support for Northern Ghana Peace Project (Damongo Unity Centre)
· The northern regions of Ghana are comparatively less developed and most conflict prone. Inter-communal and ethnic conflicts rooted in history and the scramble for traditional and political power make communities in the north vulnerable to violence. Consequently, accelerated human development programs frequently face setbacks in the region.

· Many peace efforts in the past gave little attention to the building of a local institution that would proactively en gage conflicts in the region. The Diocese of Damongo of the Catholic Church in Ghana, through its Bishop, en- visaged the Unity Centre as a regional hub where various ethnic groups would come to engage in dialogue to peace fully resolve disputes and promote social reconciliation. For the past two years, WANEP has served as resource in the design and implementation of the Centre’s programs.

· In the year under review, workshops have beenorganised by the Centre with facilitation support from WANEP. Development workers, traditional chiefs, diretors of the Northern Regional Office of the National Commis sion for Civic Education, Catholic Priests from the Diocese of Wa and members of the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church were trained in various peacebuilding capacities.

· As a result of the Centre’s efforts, community based dialogue groups are now emerging and helping significantly to deal with conflicts around land, ethnic diversity, domestic and family conflicts and, in some instances, issues of inter-religious intolerance. Bawku Peace Initiatives (BPI)

· Following the general elections in Ghana on December 8th 2000, violence erupted in Bawku, the biggest district in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The raging violence resulted in the death of 55 persons. A year later in December 2001, violence recurred claiming about 50 lives. The conflict in Bawku has generated national and international interest.

· In April 2001, WANEP facilitated the design and development of a collaborative civil society response to the Bawku crisis. Development organisations under the auspices of an Inter-NGO Consortium are now working together under the collective name, Bawku Peace Initiatives (BPI). Members of BPI include the Northern Ghana Peace Project of the Damongo Unity Centre, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Catholic Relief Services, Action Aid Ghana, the Rural Media Network, the Bawku East Women’s Development Association and World Vision International/Ghana.

· The April meeting designed a strategic entry to peacebuilding in Bawku. It also explored how peacebuilding from an integrated approach should inform relief, rehabilitation and development work in the district. The meeting also strategized a response to the crisis and through various committees worked to get leaders of all ethnic communities in the region, including the rival communities, to a dialogue process at the Damongo Unity Centre. In June, a four day consultation resulted in the signing of a communique in which the leaders committed themselves to a sustain and deliberate process that will resolve current disputes and work towards the peaceful transformation of their communities.

· The momentum gathered at the June dialogue suffered a setback on December 2, 2001 when violence was reignited by a simple dispute between two young men.

· The Bawku Peace Initiatives is again reinvigorating the process and WANEP is providing the technical support. The team is addressing effects of the recent violence while reviving the peace process at the same time.

· Bawku has a population of 308,000 people. It cannot afford to continue the violence as medical doctors, teachers, and other professionals active in development processes are leaving the district.

Training Support and Program Design for ABC Development and Development Initiative in Sierra Leone
· In Sierra Leone 87% of women and 69% of men are not literate. The country is recovering from a bitter civil war that maimed and left destitute a majority of Sierra Leoneans. It is in this context that ABC-Development and Development Initiatives (supported by Education for Development in the UK), are partners in a literacy and conflict resolution project. The two-year project is funded by the National Lotteries, in the United Kingdom.

· Along with a British based Literacy consultant, we were invited to conduct a training course that will integrate literacy, conflict resolution and peacebuilding with the staff of Development Initiative and ABC-Development. The organizations will operate the project in Bo and Kambia Districts. Both ABC Development and Development Initiatives are members of WANEP.

· Kambia is a predominantly Muslim community inhabited by the Mende, Timne and Susu speaking people. It borders the Republic of Guinea. Majority of the people in Kambia are returnees who lived as refugees in neighbouring Guinea for a number of years. Bo District is a predominantly Mende, Temne and Limba community. Bo is currently over-crowded with internally displaced people who fled neighbouring villages during the Sierra Leone civil war.

· Integrating literacy, conflict resolution and peace building was central to the training. Both participants and the trainers generated four objectives for the training workshop: knowledge and basic skills in facilitating coping mechanisms for traumatised persons; the ability to facilitate the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills required by people in their personal, occupational and communal life; working knowledge on the nature, types, structure and dynamics of conflict as well as skills for conflict transformation; definition and strategies to map issues of peace building in communities.

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