An officer of the Ghana Immigration Service answering questions from members of the Namoo Community Dialogue Platform
Community buy-in and support is critical to the success of efforts aimed at helping improve security and or preventing conflicts. Indeed, their involvement and ownership is almost inevitable in efforts to build resilience for risk border communities against spillovers and infiltration of violent extremism.
In Ghana, the volatile security situation in neighbouring countries to the north has heightened concerns of possible infiltration of extremists and radicalization of vulnerable demographics in border communities to disturb the relative peace in the country.
As a result, under its social cohesion project being implemented in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, STAR-Ghana Foundation held capacity building sessions for members of Community Dialogue Platforms in six (6) border communities in the Upper East Region to be able to effectively educate their communities and contribute to raising awareness and building resilience against border security threats. The Dialogue Platforms are made up of women leaders, youth groups, security agencies, traditional leaders, and the representatives of state agencies at the local level among other stakeholders. The current training, being the second of a series of trainings focused on Early Warning and Response Mechanisms as well as Gender Dynamics in Violent Extremism & Border Security.
Some members of the Dialogue Platform working on a group exercise during a training
Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice R. Agbenyadzi said “we recognize that this is very important, it is only when we have peace, security and stability that other things can happen.” “If there is no peace we cannot go to work, to the market, our children cannot go to school etc. so this is very important and foundational to every other thing we do as a people and as a community. Women, men and young people are affected differently by conflicts and insecurity and have different roles to play in preventing conflicts and violence.” she stressed, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the peaceful environment that currently exists.
The interactive training sessions allowed the community dialogue platform members to ask questions and share their thoughts on what is required of them and other stakeholders to maintain security and stability in their communities in the face of increasing threats of spillovers from neighbouring countries. Beneficiaries were also educated by experts from the National Peace Council on the importance of cohesion, information sharing, mediation, and conflict resolution.
Head of Programmes at STAR-Ghana Foundation, Eunice R. Agbenyadzi interacting with a cohort of Dialogue Platform members from Pusiga,Mognori and Pulmaku
Deputy Director for Conflict Management and Resolution at the National Peace Council, Frank Wilson Bodza took the beneficiaries through “Mainstreaming gender and human rights into reducing border communities’ vulnerability to radicalization and infiltration by violent extremists.”
For his part, Father Thaddaeus Kuusah, Executive Secretary of the Northern Regional Peace Council re-emphasized the importance of early warning signs and how they can be used as an effective tool to prevent conflicts and violence. He stressed that early warning and response mechanisms are most effective when they are locally led and owned. He noted, “No one can come and do early warning for you; you have to own it, once you own it, you have the capacity to respond to the threats” he maintained.
Father Thaddaeus Kuusah with an interpreter educating Dialogue platform members at Kulungungu
The training builds on the first round of training held in November 2022, introducing platform members to the Rational of Early Warning as well as Violent Extremism & Radicalisation.