by Akan Ido
Partners for Peace (P4P), a project of the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), is set to organize Peace Camp, a weeklong event in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, from August 26 to 30, 2013. This event is slated to bring together peace builders in communities throughout the region to form strong partnerships for collaboration using online and offline tools for conflict mapping, dialogue facilitation, and project management.
Peace Camp drives to the heart of PIND’s work to put peace building at the forefront of its economic development and capacity building work in the Niger Delta, and highlights the Foundation’s belief that the strongest argument for peace will be made by the strongest stakeholders for peace – men and women in Niger Delta communities whose businesses and very lives are badly impacted by violent conflict.
“Conflict is a key constraint to sustainable economic development,” says Mr. Sam Daibo, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), speaking of the Partners for Peace project under the organization’s Peace Building Program. “This is because it removes the stability in the environment that is necessary for the progress of any community. Schools stop teaching our children, businesses stop investing, people’s livelihoods are disrupted. It’s a vicious cycle, and PIND’s approach is to recognize community leaders, farmers, and other business owners as key stakeholders in their communities. Put simply, there can be no sustainability of any development without peace.”
The week of events at Peace Camp will combine workshops, discussion sections and knowledge sharing opportunities to create safe spaces in which peace builders, both old and new, can learn from experts as well as each other. The all-day skills training during the Camp will focus on such modules as: peace building and dialogue facilitation, using new media for research, project management, development of early warning mechanisms, and conflict mapping. This week will also see the launching of the Partners for Peace Network on August 28, 2013, a platform by which individuals, businesses, civil society, and communities can work together to better advance their cause of livelihoods free of violence and conflict. Participants will also come up with action plans on how best to launch renewed efforts towards peace in their respective communities.
“Bringing together the vast majority of stakeholders for peace at different levels of society will be key to fostering a deeper sense of ownership among community members,” says Mr. Colins Imoh, P4P Project Manager. “Conflict robs a community’s farmers and business people of their livelihoods and their voice, so this effort is to strengthen the voice of communities, give them agency, and strengthen their capacity to peacefully protect their community and livelihoods.”
After Peace Camp, Partner for Peace Network members will then organize themselves into chapters and clubs that will contribute to early warning incident reporting, collaboration on solutions to conflict and continue to raise awareness about the benefits of peace. Imoh is hopeful that the P4P Network would help provide workable, community-based solutions to conflict that can be replicated in conflict-prone areas throughout the country.
“There is every reason to believe that this rich exchange of ideas we are facilitating at Peace Camp will enable all stakeholders the tools to amplify their voices and more effectively stand for peace,” he concluded.
