By: Haruna Kuyateh
With financial support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Peace Building Fund (UNPBF), the West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) and the Ministry of Interior had embarked on a two-day Community Outreach on Infrastructure 4 Peace (I4P) for 50 participants and 30 participants on Focus Group Discussions on the need for the establishment of Peace and Reconciliation Commission to consolidate national cohesion.
The consultative conferences geared to sounding the views on existing peace building structures on the membership, structure and powers of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, as well as other matters relating to the coordination of The Gambia’s I4P.
The overarching objective of this activity is to convene and consult local structures and communities to get their views and insights on the existing peace structures and mechanisms to support the creation of a peace and reconciliation commission and to enhance the coordination of The Gambia’s peace architecture.
Deputy Governor of North Bank Region (NBR) DemboSamateh, underscored government commitment to the promotion of peace and security in accelerating national development objectives. He described the convergence as timely and important, noting it will contribute to raise public awareness on democracy, respect for rule of law and enhance human dignity through human rights.
Deputy Governor Samateh said the outcome of the engagement through consultation and Focus Group Discussions with women and youths separately. He said democracy call for all-inclusive participation and therefore abuse and violation of rights, citing insults and castigating tribes, families and religion are against fundamental principles of societal norms and values.
Baboucar Cham, Chairperson of Infrastructure 4 Peace (I 4 P) reiterated the significant of the exercise, noting it would help empower communities to discussed and create awareness on the formation of National Peace and Reconciliation Commission to consolidate existing peace and security. He noted that conflict is dangerous and affect moral values and therefore, Infrastructure 4 Peace would contribute to enhance citizen participation in identifying conflict drivers and peace engine to promote collective participation.
Cham called on the participants to promote the use of dialogue as a tool in problem- solving.
Haruna Kuyateh Facilitator and WANEP Focal Point underscored the significant of the interface and it important in the quest to accelerate national respond mechanism in peace and reconciliation efforts. He reiterated for people to accept each other irrespective of their political, tribal and religious differences to bring about positive thinking behaviors.
