Mercy Corps team to promote locally-driven peace initiatives in Katsina
By Zubairu Idris
Participants of a training programme organised by Mercy Corps have resolved to utilise their new skills to promote locally-driven peace initiatives across communities in Katsina State.
The training programme was on ‘Interest-Based Negotiation (IBN) techniques.
“The participants have collectively resolved to use the knowledge they have acquired from this training to facilitate peaceful coexistence in different communities across the state,” Mercy Corps Senior Programme Manager, Mr Philip Ikita read out the resolution at the end of the four-day training on Friday.
The training was conducted under the organisation’s Conflict Prevention, Crisis Response and Resilience (CPCRR) programme, funded by the European Union (EU), and implemented in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Center of Democracy and Development (CDD).
The participants had mapped their communities and identified Community and Social Development Resources available, and its management and challenges, and how it could be deployed to promote peaceful coexistence.
They also drafted action plans for implementation in their respective communities.
The participants included farmers, herders, local government officials, and Community-Based Organisation (CBOs) drawn from Batsari, Safana, Faskari, Dandume and Sabuwa local government areas, which have suffered long years of bandits attacks and displacements.
One of the participants, Mustapha Shehu, a youth leader from Faskari, said the training was timely and important in view of the security situation they found themselves.
He expressed the belief that the knowledge acquired during the training would impact on his activities as a peace advocate.
“Most of the youths are at their adolescent period, they see what they do as right. We will sit down with them, educate them about the importance of peace and dangers associated with conflict,” he assured.
Another participant, Pastor John Abiodun, stressed the need for forgiveness, dialogue, and working together to rebuild peace across communities.
According to him, dialogue and forgiveness will strengthen peaceful coexistence.
Abiodun identified factors responsible for insecurity in parts of the state to include disagreement over grazing lands and water point, and stressed the need to resolve those issues for peace to reign.
Ms Lynda Nkechi-Emmanuel, a Senior Programme Officer, urged the participants to do more in educating people other people in their respective communities on crisis prevention, response and resilience.
She also urged the participants and the public to always contact Mercy Corps on any issue that may lead to conflict through info@mcnigeria.com, toll-free 0800 4444 1111, WhatsApp 0908 898 8350, or through www.mercycorps.org.
Certificates were presented to the participants by the senior programme manager, Mr Philip Ikita.
The theme of the training was “Promoting Locally-Driven Peace Initiatives and Preventing Conflict through Interest-Based Negotiation, and Community and Social Development Resource Management”.
