On 12 January 2008, the Special Advisor to the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, Mr. Naoki Ishikawa was in Ghana on a working visit. The Japan Permanent Mission is currently presiding over the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) of the United Nations. Mr Ishikawa convened this meeting in his capacity as Advisor to the President of the PBC. He took the opportunity to meet with WANEP which is the leading Peacebuilding Network Organisation in Africa and also serves as the West Africa Regional Secretariat for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), to discuss issues of peace and conflict prevention in West Africa.

The discussions dwelt mainly on the role of Civil Society in Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention. WANEP brought to the fore its vast experience in Peacebuilding work and its invaluable contribution to peace in West Africa. The emphasis was on how the goal of the PBC could be achieved by bringing on board all stakeholders especially the Civil Society. WANEP has through its National Network Secretariat in Sierra Leone been playing a leading role as a Civil Society Organisation in the PBC process in that country. The meeting was therefore a strategic one as it provided a platform to discuss areas of further and stronger collaboration between CSOs and the PBC and how best CSOs can play a leading role in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. It also emerged from the meeting that partnership among various stakeholders was key to achieving lasting peace not only in Africa but in the world at large.

He was accompanied by Ms. Yoko anazawa, First Secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Ghana. WANEP was represented by Emmanuel Bombande, Executive Director, Suifon Takwa, Programs Director/Liaison Officer to ECOWAS and Francis Acquah Jnr, Program Officer/Regional Liaison Officer for GPPAC