‘Extend conflict resolution to include basic needs of people’
Conflict resolution should not be limited to election environments but be extended to addressing basic needs of the people.
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The Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), University of Ghana, Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, who made the observation, said people’s needs could only be unravelled when they were recognised in the peace-building process.
She, therefore, called on stakeholders in peacebuilding to involve civil societies in conflict resolution in order to minimise its relapse within the sub-region.
Professor Mensa-Bonsu, who made the appeal, said international communities had relied on parties in conflict in their efforts to resolve them without recourse to civil societies, and added that there was a need for a paradigm shift to prevent the recurrence of conflicts in Africa.
Research proposal
Prof. Henrietta was speaking at a two-day research proposal writing workshop for West African countries in Accra, yesterday organised by LECIAD in collaboration with the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).
The workshop sought to educate researchers in the sub-region on the need to develop proposals which would be adopted by African countries in their development policies to prevent or minimise the occurrence of conflict.
“Conflict resolution should not be limited to election in conflictual environments, but it should be extended in addressing basic needs of the people which can only be unravelled when they are recognised in the peacebuilding process,”she said.
The Programme Director of APN, Dr Cyril Obi, said the effects of conflicts in Africa had caused divisions among indigenes which needed to be addressed to ensure development and added that, African intellectuals were needed to brainstorm on how to deal with it.
He urged participants to make use of the workshop in order to develop their capacity for African interest.
