Ghana to host first West Africa Peace Dialogue in September
Ghana will host the first ever West Africa Peace Dialogue here in the capital, Accra in at the end of the third quarter, a statement released by its Secretariat on Saturday says.
The programme, put together by the Africa Centre for Peace Building-Ghana, Global Educators for All Initiatives-Nigeria, The Emmanuel Ivogba Foundation and United Religions Initiatives is under the theme “Sustaining Regional Peace To Promote Trade, Investment and Development in West Africa.”
The dialogue will be held at the University of Professional Studies from September 20 to 21, 2019.
The African continent in recent times, has been experiencing a new trend of conflict – homophobic attacks which was witnessed in South Africa.
The most recent is the Ghana and Nigeria trade feud and this development, organisers say, poses serious threat to continental unity if not curbed.
The statement signed by Mr. Korsi Senyo, Executive Director for Africa Centre for Peace Building said, “We, as organizations with strong foundation built on the principles of peace and harmony see peaceful co-existence among neighboring nations as a key element to promoting trade, investment and human capital development which lead to solving some basic social problems like unemployment, poverty and hunger. These social problems are an influential undertone to conflict and civil unrest.
We also noted that adherence to national laws without key references to regional laws and treaties signed by states within a region could form a basis for regional conflicts hence defeating the common goals for establishing regional blocs in Africa.
Against the concern, organizers will be bringing together West Africa governments, media, legal practitioners, academic and civil society organizations within the West Africa Sub-region.
The dialogue will explore how best members within the sub-region can promote sisterhood, peace and trade for the development of the people whiles taking into account national laws and international treaties.
The dialogue will have keynote addresses and panel discussions where speakers and high personalities will be assembled from the business community, law, media, academia and from governments to discuss specific areas. This will provide an opportunity for participants to interact with the speakers and panelists on the issues.
The second section will focus on research paper presentation where seasoned researchers who have done some works on the areas of such conflicts will help find some of underpinning factors to such conflict and how they can be resolved.