… facilitates women inclusion into the community peace and conflict resolution committee
Environmental Conflict Mediation and Women Development Initiative (E COMAWDI) alongside other partners on Tuesday 3rd of May, 2022 organized Community Engagement and Dialogue With Peace builders in Akinyele Township.
The participants which were mainly women were trained on ways to ensure peace, mediate in community conflict in ensuring a secured and sustainable community.
According to Mrs. Ijeoma Ladele, Executive Director of ECOMAWDI, also Member of Women Mediators across commonwealth stated that women played a significant role in community dialogue, peace building and mediation also in community development and leadership of the community.
In her overview, Mrs Ijeoma Ladele said “Women Mediators across the commonwealth primary objective is to increase the participation of women in peace processes at all levels and deploying of its members and other qualified expert women Mediators, the Strategic Mediation Funds is to foster research,advocacy and engagement to ensure increased participation of women Mediators and also increase visibility and the work members do in their context”
Speaking further, she stated that this is not the first program the NGO will be conducting as they have had dialogue sessions for women “we have had dialogue session in laniba community and have also done activities in engaging women in participating in peace building process and also in election matters so our role as an organisation is to make sure that women participate and are also visible in communities”
In the opening speech of Barrister Opakunle, the Chairman Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, Oyo State Chapter identified the two traditional ways of settling disputes over the years which has been police and court in which most times, these two ways causes more havock than good, as what their organization does is providing alternative dispute resolution out of court by calling parties involved for a dialogue and peace talk to identify root causes of their conflict and thereby facilitating reconciliation without necessarily convicting anyone.
Chief Kehinde Olabiyi who stood in for the royal head of the community, HRH James Odediran, on behalf of Kabiesi commended the organizers for bringing such educating and enlightening program to their community and equally welcome everyone to the program, after delivering Kabiesi goodwill message. In Chief Kehinde Olabiyi entourage were Chief Akinyele Sunday, the Aare Alasa of Akinyele, Iyaloja of Akinyele, Mrs Bintu Muraina; Mr Abidoye Osundiran, Community Hygiene Officer; Mr Temitayo Wahab, Youth Leader and Mrs Zainab Muda.
The Lead Facilitator, Dr. Adeola Adams, a lecturer at the National Open University; Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, also a national officer at the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, while speaking with our reporter said that the program seek to better inform women on their roles in peacekeeping in the community. He said “This program is for us to have one on one dialogue with women in akinyele township and before we can have that dialogue we need to provide them with some information that will guide their taught, situate what we want to do with what they are doing by engaging with them, bring in some information that will be vital for them to be able to understand exactly what we are here for”
He also said that the program seeks to enlighten the participants on peace structures and how to make effective use of them, also identifying different peace actors; other actors that they can work with in order to make peace and development a key component of activities in Akinyele.
While delivering his presentation, Dr. Adams described Community Engagement (CE) as a critical component of Peace-Building, activity that is currently gaining global audience – UN, AU, ECOWAS, and NGOs.
Speaking further, he stated that the core of CE is to win local actors into the side of the government/humanitarian workers/NGOs/other actors in order to build peace.
He therefore identified ways in which women can participate in peace building to be Social, Economic, Political, Security, Spiritual and Cultural.
Furthermore, Dr. Adams highlighted ways in which women can contribute to peace in the community, out of which includes; Intelligence to Authority, through providing valuable information to authorities on intelligence gathering; Food Security, Advice to their husbands, Care givers to victims of war, Construction and Relocation, Advocacy, Capacity Building, Building Broken Relationship, Governance, Donation for Development Purposes, among others.
Women were encouraged to increase their participation in governance and make themselves available to serve in various leadership capacities whenever such opportunity avail itself.
Speaking as regards the appraisal of this program which has held in different places before now, Mrs Ijeoma Ladele said “women are participating but not fully participating in community activities and that is why this program is about sensitizing the women to also take their role in the society”
On the part of Dr. Adeola Adams he said that the participation of women has been very wonderful, and he believe that after the program, participants will also take the message to the street to inform those who are not available on whatever they learn from the dialogue. “It’s been very wonderful, women are always welcoming our programs, like I said it is going to be an eye opener for women in Akinyele and they are going to be peace agent(Advocate) the women that we have here are just a faction of women in Akinyele by the time we engage them they will go out there and engage others and by doing this, the whole of Akinyele will have a feel of what it means to build peace and to make development happens in their domain”
The organizers also made it known that their spread will cut across other places in Ibadan and Oyo State at large.
Questions were asked on how to meditate in conflict and Dr. Adams made justice to that.
Part of the resolution of the dialogue session is to include women in the Community Conflict and Resolution Committee which was not in existence before this program, after which the community leaders agreed to include women in the committee as a result of the intervention of this program.
The organizers informed the participants that they are already deliberating on having a peace and reconciliation sitting in the town once in a week or once in two weeks that after meeting with Kabiesi, the arrangement will be made known.
After the Facilitation dialogue the gathering went into four focused group dialogue session comprising of ten persons per group to further deepen discussion on personal issues and the community as well.
While giving her closing remark, Iyaloja of Akinyele Local Government, Mrs Bintu Muraina on behalf of women in the local government and community appreciated the organizers and equally requested that this should not be the last in the community. She also said that she will ensure adequate representation of women in the committee set up by the community royal head, and at the same time set up similar committee to look at other issues at it affect women.
Supported by: Women Mediators Across the Common Wealth.
London School of Economics (Women Peace & Security)