WANEP HOSTS IFOR/WPP AFRICA REGIONAL DESK

Following an International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) Council decision in 2005 to decentralize the work of the Women Peace Makers Program (WPP) WANEP now hosts the Africa Regional Desk.

A participatory assessment of organizations in Africa to select the best suitable organization to host and run a Regional Desk in Africa recommended that WANEP hosts the Desk because of their capacity, confidence and expertise in running a Regional Network. In addition WANEP’s unique and good example could be replicated in the Northern, Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.

This led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between WANEP as the host organization and IFOR/WPP.

The process culminated into the recruitment of a coordinator for the Africa Desk in June 2007 which was also planned to coincide with the African Advisory Board meeting and was hosted by WANEP in Accra from Monday 25^th to Friday 29^th June 2007. It aimed at serving as an orientation for the coordinator; but primarily, it was to develop a three year strategic plan and a one year Action plan for the Desk.

The goal of the Africa Regional Desk over the next three years is to actively engage African women peace makers in gender sensitive active non-violence processes to transform societies by 2010. It is to this end that the three-year strategic plan and the one-year activity plan were developed

Highlights of activities for the first year include.

• A 3-day Gender training for African women peace makers to be held in Ghana in October 2007. This activity will be planned to serve as a launch of the Desk.
• A ToT (Training of Trainers) on Active Non-Violence for participants from Central Africa, which will be held in Zambia in November 2007.
• A ToT on Active Non-Violence for participants from the Horn of Africa which will be held in Kenya in May 2008.
• Support for women civil society organizations who are into gender, rights and peacebuilding will go on throughout the year.

With this, WPP Africa Desk is now poised to reach out and strengthen networks of women peace makers to complement WANEP’s efforts in other regions of Africa.