Plateau: Women Affairs Commissioner Caroline, Urges Women Mediators To Gain From CLEEN, Be Agents Of Change

From Tongnaan Bawa, Jos

The Plateau State Commisioner for Women Affairs and Social Development Caroline Dafur has urged Women Mediators in the State to participate and gain from the opportunity accorded to them to learn on peace building and to effectively also step it down to their various communities.

The Commissioner was speaking while declaring open a 3 day Capacity strengthening for women mediators on Mediation, Conflict Resolution and Peace building in Plateau State, at Crispan Hotel Jos, organised by CLEEN Foundation in partnership with UN Women.

Dafur while commending the Foundation for the tremendous effort put in place and urged them to continue with the good work they are doing to educate women on peace building.

She acknowledged that peace is inevitable, hence the need for it to be encouraged because women and children are the most vulnerable and falls victims of any conflict.

She advocated for women to be inclusive as stakeholders in the place of decisions in all ramifications especially in peace building that,it is very good to bring women to the table for discussion because they understand the trauma and pains of crisis situations .

“It is very important that we bring them at the table of discussion, women are very good and known for negotiation and to live in peace so is very good to build their capacity on that”

Speaking earlier the Executive Director of CLEEN Foundation Gad Peter Shamaki, said the 3 days Capacity strengthening for building for Women Mediators on Mediation, Conflicts Resolution and Peace building for women in Plateau was important because of all the challenges faced by women and their role in the society can never be overemphasize .

“Women are caregivers, peace promoters, advocates and voice of the voiceless, historically women have been the Pillar, they are full of strength and resilience.They can effectively make positive change, and recognizing that role will give them the opportunity to be peace builders and part of this process” He streessed.

Shamaki maintained that the process was a testament of their collective commitment to empower women with skills and knowledge needed to be effective Mediators, hence the need to invest in Capacity building of Women.

“We are not only promoting gender equality but also unlocking a peaceful force for positive change in our Communities.”

He further explained that, the objective of the program was to equip each and every participant with practical skills for effective Mediation to enhance their understanding of local social- cultural and peace building efforts, and to foster a supportive networking that will enable them to make massive contribution to peace resolution.

“We cut across religion,faith, generation,diverse ethnic background, diverse religion and we strongly believe that you will bring experience that will add value not only to yourself but including your Communities” He emphasized.

While Commending the Ministry of women Affairs for the support they have accorded to the program and their support towards enhancing women participation in peace building security efforts as a government of the state, he stated that, because of the population of the women not only in Plateau but in Nigeria they are a force that no one can take for granted and because of the value that women bring to the table, more should be done inorder to stabilize various Communities.

The participants were engaged in aggressive training in relation to gender inclusive Mediation, enhancing women engagement in negotiation, conflict and gender analysis, introduction to conflict and gender analysis, Peace building advocacy and also the principles of advocacy.

Giving the four main pillars of the United nations security council 1325 of year 2000, as Preventive, participantion, Protection, Relief and Recovery, while talking on Enhancing Women Engagement in Negotiation, the Country Director of Equal Access International, Dr. Maji Peter, said the pillars increased participation of women in all levels of decisions making nationally and international institutions in mechanisms that prevent, manage and resolve conflicts in peace negotiation.

What stood out for the participants that took much of their time to fully understand was the perspectives and perceptions in conflict analysis, on what connector and divider analysis is all about, and stakeholders mapping, challenges and concern.

It was a simple and easy syndicate session but participants were confused on were and how to outline and appropriately place peace connectors and dividers of peace. But after pains taking from the facilitators, Shamaki Gad and Bernard, the participants understood, repeated the excise and were all excited.

At the end of the three days training, Rabi Mudi from Jos North called for the need for women to be included in decisions making at all levels as stakeholders.

According to her, women get discourage and think that they don’t have a voice, but with the capacity training, she said ” I’m better equipped with knowledge on Mediation and as a Mediator, I can effectively step down in my community as expected from me”

While appreciating CLEEN Foundation for the opportunity, Rabi said she has learned on how to identify issues using the conflict analysis tools to get to the root causes of problems.

For Hauwa Mohammed from Wase, said “This is their second workshop that I’m attending, but this particular training workshop stands out as the best and interesting by CLEEN Foundation. They have met my expectations. I didn’t know that solutions could be arrived by conflicting parties, but by this workshop, I now have a better understanding.”

I want to plead that the Foundation will see need to increase the number of participants so that more women will be involved in Mediation in the society.

Lekur Patience Naanzem, a participant from the Ministry of women Affairs and Social Development, ” The training was very educating, enlightening, impactful. I have greatly improved my knowledge on Mediation. I will put it into practice at my place of work and community”

And for Plangna’an Da’or of Plateau Peace Building Agency, ” It was truly a practical and engaging training. Listening to practical experiences of other women has helped and strengthened my capacity for advocacy and effective conflict analysis.

Pleased with the high level of participation of participants at training, the Director of CLEEN Foundation, Gad Shamaki described it as higher than the previous. “The participants have shown higher participation, they were engaging, they showed a lot of knowledge and skills” Adding ” There is hope in what they will give in Mediation and peace building”.

Participants were drawn from Jos North, Mangu, Wase, Riyom Local Government Areas, Plateau State peace building Agency, Ministry of women Affairs and Social Development, WPS and other peace promoting organizations.