Accra: The Upper West Regional office of the National Peace Council has intensified its efforts in enhancing social cohesion and promoting peaceful co-existence in border communities by identifying and empowering community peace champions. The initiative, 'Improving the Economic Resilience of Host Communities for Peacebuilding (Northern C´te D'Ivoire, Northern Ghana)', is being implemented in the Zini and Kwapun communities in the Sissala West and Sissala East Municipalities, respectively.
According to Ghana News Agency, the initiative is in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), with funding support from the U.S. Department of State. Mr Clifford Tampuori, the Upper West Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, mentioned in a statement that this intervention is crucial due to the influx of asylum seekers, refugees, and transhumance from the Sahel region into the Upper West Region. This influx has strained the limited resources of the host communities, posing a potential risk to disrupt peaceful co-existence.
Data from the Ghana Refugee Board indicates that the Upper West and Upper East Regions have received over 15,000 asylum seekers, with the Upper West Region recording close to 7,000. The Zini and Kwapun communities, in particular, have seen a significant influx of asylum seekers and refugees from Burkina Faso due to insurgencies in that country. This situation necessitates proactive measures to maintain peace while providing shelter for these asylum seekers.
The statement emphasized the need for mechanisms or interventions to strengthen economic resilience, promote peaceful resource-sharing, and enhance conflict prevention with a focus on sustainability and local ownership. The interventions will target both refugees and host populations to build sustainable peace and resilience. The initiative aims to establish community-based early warning systems and link them with Ghana's early warning response mechanisms to strengthen the peace architecture in these communities.
In pursuit of these goals, the UWRPC organized a three-day capacity-building workshop for 30 peace champions from the two communities, comprising at least 40 percent females. The workshop, held in Tumu in the Sissala East Municipality, aimed to empower peace champions to strengthen community resilience and support the state's capacity to prevent conflict and insecurity. The UWRPC plans to engage in regular activities, including monitoring, to further enhance the skills of the peace champions to enable them to execute their tasks effectively.
The initiative seeks to establish a functioning community-state coordinated peace mechanism and enhance trust and information-sharing between communities and state actors.
