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Annual Report 2001

Management Report

At the 2001 Annual General Meeting (AGM) members of WANEP agreed on the three-year agenda of the Network. Strategic priorities for which activities were designed and implemented included strengthening the peacebuilding capacity of civil society groups, organizations and practitioners; building a nonviolent and peace education program; building a conflict prevention (early warning and early response) network beginning with the Mano River basin countries; developing a framework for assessing peacebuilding programs; and strengthening national networks.

Marked achievements were made in each priority area. A number of WANEP national liaison offices are fully functioning while others inspired by their peers are working around the clock to get their liaison offices established; progress was made in Bawku, a key district in Ghana’s Upper East Region, where a peace deal was brokered. Unfortunately, however, that agreement was painfully tested on December 2nd when two young men triggered violence in a simple dispute about lotto numbers. About sixty people lost their lives in the three-day violence. The violence reminds us of the fragility of our communities and the painstaking efforts needed to sustain peace accords designed to transform conflicts—whether political or inter-communal conflicts.

Twenty-six research analysts and practitioners completed an intense two-part course and are now prepared to carryout the system design for the West Africa Early Warning and Response Network (WARN). The training course was co-facilitated by the Conflict Indicator for Foreign Policy Program at the Norman Patterson School of International Studies in Canada, the Swiss Peace Foundation and WANEP. The Forum on Early Warning and Early Response (FEWER) sourced for the funding. Also, a region specific curriculum for nonviolence and peace education was completed and is being tested in eight countries.

We entered into partnerships with a number of internationally recognized organizations. Each organization in the partnerships has indicated their confidence in WANEP’s capacity to catalyze strong civil society groups in West Africa.

The years 2002 and 2003 will be filled with immense challenges in West Africa. Countries that are most prone to violent conflicts (Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone) will go through elections—an event that is often associated with violence in most fledgling democracies. While we brace ourselves for the impending challenges, heartwarming examples from Ghana, Benin, Senegal and the Gambia give us reasons to believe that these countries will cross that delicate bridge in peace.

Immense gratitude goes to our donor partners. Your generosity and faith in what we do continue to inspire us. We are especially humbled by the vivacity and gallantry of all the partners who wakeup each morning to the reality of pursuing peace in war-ravaged communities and under repressive regimes. Building just peace in West Africa may be long and tedious but victory is incontrovertible.

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