<<Print>>

Leaders of women�s groups in the Upper West Region have been sensitized to sit up and participate in initiatives that were geared towards bringing peace to conflict areas in northern Ghana. At a two-day workshop, which ended at Wa Ms. Agnes Gandaa, Partnership Coordinator of TEPPCON, said, women by their nature were better peace brokers than men, and were more consistent in such undertakings. As such, she was optimistic that they would play a more effective role in conflict resolution and peace building than men if given the knowledge and skills. The workshop under the theme; �Conflict Prevention, Resolution and Transformation, the Role of the Northern Woman�, was organized by Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Pastoral Conference (TEPPCON), an organization within the Northern Province of the Catholic Church and funded by Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF), a German NGO operating in the country. It is the second of five workshops that were being organized for the women as a result of the perception that they had not been effectively involved in many development and conflict issues in the three regions. Their non-involvement in conflict issues was partly due to the cultural perception that they had little to offer when it came to issues of critical thinking. Ms. Gandaa therefore challenged women in the conflict areas to speak to their husbands and children, and the youth in general for a lasting solution to be found to the conflicts in northern Ghana. Mr. David Yakubu, the Upper West Regional Coordinating Director who represented the Regional Minister, said the region could not allow destabilizing factors like conflicts to prevail, as they needed peace to tackle the high levels of poverty and low standard of living in the area. He called on chiefs and people of the region to use legal processes and publicly accepted institutions to address conflicts which were inevitable in human settings, instead of resorting to unconventional methods of resolving differences. On the involvement of women in conflict issues, he advised that women should be represented in the decision making process at various levels and further called for their inclusion in the peace advisory councils. Mr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah, Senior Programme Manager of KAF regretted that almost every misunderstanding among groups of people in the Northern Ghana had in most cases resulted in the destruction of houses and other properties. He noted that such violent conflicts were giving a very bad image to the area, adding that, it was time the women as wives and mothers got involved in persuading their husbands and sons to bury their differences, in order to create conditions for development to take place.