Sunyani, Aug. 3, GNA – Women leaders in the country have been urged to strive, build, promote and facilitate peace and social cohesion in their communities.
They must be empowered to devise a peace hut mechanism to mediate and resolve local and domestic conflicts before they escalate into violence, Alhaji Abdallah Suallah Quandah, the Bono Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC) has said.
“In the peace huts, women leaders will liaise with local Police and relevant institutions through a mobile phone hotline, and engage in local peace-building efforts,” Alhaji Quandah said when he addressed the opening session of a seminar on gender, conflict and peacebuilding in Sunyani.
The Bono Regional Secretariat of the NPC organised the seminar in honour of the late Nana Yaa Nyamaa Poduo II, ex-Paramount Queen-mother of Sunyani, and attended by women leaders, representatives of security agencies as well as civil society organisations, peace actors and students.
Until her demise in 2019, Nana Poduo II was a member of the NPC in the Bono Region.
“When women participate in peace processes, the resulting agreement is more durable and better implemented. A high level of gender equality is associated with a lower propensity for conflict,” Alhaji Quandah stated.
He said the inclusion of women, the majority of the nation’s population, in peace-building had a positive impact on negotiation outcomes, and greater relevance to society, saying it would make policies respond more effectively to the needs of society.
“Once policies are accepted by society it is easy to develop and maintain a culture of peace. In fact, recent developments bring home the lesson that to achieve sustainable peace we must all work together in an integrated and coherent way, otherwise, the drums of war will drown the music of peace”, Alhaji Quandah said.
He emphasised the role and contributions of women to the culture of peace were not only important because women represented the majority of the global population, but also because women were key drivers of the radical change of mindsets, institutions and cultures.
Alhaji Quandah said the promotion and achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment were crucial to advancing the culture of peace in all its vectors, including education, sustainable economic and social development, human rights and equality, democratic participation, understanding at all levels in the family, community, region and the nation.
“Women must not only be protected from war and the violence unleashed thereby, but they must be seen as agents of conflict prevention, of peace-making, and as reconcilers in peace-building in post-conflict period”, Alhaji Quandah stated.
“Despite the progress, we have seen in promoting the rights of women and their roles in peace processes, there remain situations where progress for women’s contributions to peace-making and peace-building are undermined or under-utilized”, he said.
“One of the main reasons women are still not included in peace processes is structured exclusion from decision-making positions. Women are held out of leadership positions in governments, non-state entities and political parties”.
Alhaji Quandah, therefore, underscored the need to intensify efforts in breaking stereotypes and beliefs that undermined the role of women in peace and security, saying “we must focus on improving the access to education of girls and all young people, providing a secure environment for them to learn, breaking down gender stereotypes in school curricula and teacher training programmes, advancing understanding, tolerance and solidarity, and ultimately spreading a culture of gender equality which will lead to a culture of peace”.
Mr John Ansu Kumi, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, described the late Nana Poduo II as an embodiment of peace and social cohesion, and commended the NPC for the seminar, saying, “we must all do much to highlight the peaceful traits embedded in the late Paramount Queen- mother for people to emulate.”
GNA