The West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP-Nigeria), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has trained 67 women on processes to resolve conflict in Nigeria.
WANEP-Nigeria, in a three-day seminar tagged ‘Training the Trainers’, which ended on Friday, engaged the women on leadership skills, peacebuilding, and advocacy.
Bridget Osakwe, national network coordinator of WANEP-Nigeria, said the resources of young people, especially women, are underutilised in community engagements, adding that the programme is part of efforts to improve female representation in such processes.
“Thirty-five out of 36 states in the country are experiencing violent conflicts, and the remaining one is not totally violence-free. This means we are in a serious insecurity situation that needs to be addressed,” she said.
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“If the insecurity situation must be addressed, it means we cannot leave this responsibility to the government alone, who are obviously using hardcore security response which is the military. We need to ensure the approaches are multi-sectoral and multidimensional.
“We selected young women between ages 15 and 35, and all we wanted is to have young women who are building peace contribute their quota to nation-building. While we the older generation are gradually sitting back, there would be a group of young women with skills in peacebuilding that would be able to take up from where we stopped.
“This training will provide the platform for mentoring young women to take the space and be effectively involved in civic processes and advocacy to hold political decision-makers accountable to their obligations.”
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In her remarks, Patricia Donli, national coordinator of the Gender Equality, Peace and Development Center (GEPaDC), a non-governmental organisation, said it is important to engage young women in peacebuilding efforts, especially in detecting early warning signs of violence in communities.
“Early warning prevents violence from occurring and this ‘training the trainers’ workshop is commendable, because it will have a multiplier effect on the communities, as we would have many young women as early warning monitors, who will in turn train others and thereby, many are involved in peace processes in the community and the country,” she said.
On her part, Patience Obaulo, head of programmes, WANEP-Nigeria, said the training was aimed at raising awareness on peace and security among young women, adding that the workshop is mainly to groom young women who can lead and strategise to sustain peace.
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