By Gilbert Azeem Tiroog
Tempane (U/E), Feb. 4, GNA – The Upper East Regional Peace Council has empowered women at Tempane District in the Upper East Region to support dissemination of counter-narrative messages as measure to maintain peace and ensure development.
The women, numbering 60, including queen mothers, elected women leaders, persons with disabilities, members of women’s groups among others were drawn from border communities of the district.
The two-day engagement, under an activity dubbed “Support the Dissemination of Alternatives and Counter-Narrative Messages through Leveraging the Role of Women as Peace Agents and Trusted Messengers among Their Communities”, formed part of the Preventive Approach to Protecting Development in the Gulf of Guinea project.
It is being funded by the governments of Denmark, Luxembourg and the Republic of Korea through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The aim of the project is to increase participation of women in peacebuilding, improve dissemination of counter-narrative messages, and enhance community resilience to harmful narratives and to strengthen partnerships between women’s organisations and local authorities.

Mr Ali Anankpieng, Executive Secretary of the Upper East Regional Peace Council, indicated that women were grassroot leaders and their inclusion in championing peace enhanced peace agreements that were needed for the transformation of development in every community.
He said women had crucial roles to play in maintaining peace hence important that their capacities were built to enable them to foster community engagements, social cohesion, promote alternative and counter-narratives and reduce the influence of harmful narratives.
Mr Abo-Ame Akanbonga, the Upper East Regional Programmes Officer of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (NACSA), reechoed that building capacity of the women was in the right direction to maintaining sustainable peace.
He noted that most of the women had inadequate knowledge on what they could do to help the security services combat radicalism and violent extremism, therefore training them was crucial to enhancing their capacity to work closely and appropriately with the security agencies to counter violent narratives.
Ms Esther Adjei, Senior Inspector at the Pulmakom Sector of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), said empowering the women was key for effective collaborations and early detection of crimes.
“What the women can do to support the security service is to give us relevant information, things that are happening in their surroundings and market places, and they can only do so when they are empowered to know what to look out for, and so this training is crucial and would lead to effective collaborations”, she added.
GNA