Commonwealth Secretariat trains stakeholders in peace building

A three-day capacity building workshop on dialogue, negotiation and mediation for key stakeholders in peacebuilding, has opened in Kumasi with a call on participants to show leadership in ensuring peace and stability in the country.

The workshop put together by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the National Peace Council (NPC), would focus on ways to enhance inter-party dialogue mechanisms in Ghana, ahead of the 2020 general elections.

It seeks to build the capacities of participants on effective dialogue, mediation and negotiation skills by learning from successful experiences in Africa and elsewhere.

It is being attended by representatives from the NPC, political parties, traditional authorities, civil society organizations (CSOs) in peacebuilding as well as youth and women groups.

Ms. Lindiwe Maleleka, Political Officer, Governance and Peace Directorate at the Commonwealth Secretariat, in an opening address, said conflict prevention and peacebuilding were continuous and intertwined processes of dialogue, mediation and negotiation.

She said the Commonwealth Charter, political values and principles, which had been the compass for the work at the Secretariat, placed high value on political consensus in member states, which could only be achieved through diverse processes of dialogue, negotiation and mediation.

“The Commonwealth Secretariat considers strongly that peace and stability within political spheres and electoral landscapes in member states is very critical to deepening democracy, fostering good governance and sustainable development”, she stated.

Dialogue and peace building, she observed, were at the heart of the support the secretariat provided across the Commonwealth through preventive diplomacy, election observation, the strengthening of human rights and justice, rule of law and good governance.

“The Secretariat on its part will continue to support the Government and people of Ghana through home-grown initiatives geared towards enhancing social cohesion, political stability and democratic consolidation”, She assured.

Ms. Maleleka commended the NPC for the work it had done over the years in defusing political and electoral tensions, reducing conflict stressors within political space and in communities.

The Right Reverend Christopher Nyarko Andam, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPC, said the workshop was timely considering the fact that Election 2020 was just around the corner.

He said the Ashanti Region was bedevilled with issues of vigilantism, street protests and chieftaincy disputes, which usually escalated during elections and called on all stakeholders to join forces to protect the peace in the Region.