Confluent Media, in collaboration with IoTeedom, has called for public cooperation as it embarks on a peace research for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal-16 on ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’.

The research, with the campaign tagline: “The Voices for Peace” aims at getting to the bottom of injustice and spread peace ahead of the 2020 general election.

A statement signed by Musah Inuwa, the Chief Executive Officer of Confluent Media, a marketing and research company, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said data gathered suggested an increase in anti-social behaviour, lack of youth involvement in decision making and mistrust of government, lack of transparency and poor public service provision.
Citizens’ cooperation in the conduct of the survey, it said, would enable the company and partners to communicate appropriate findings to citizens and government bodies alike.

“This will not happen overnight, however, we can promote peace through the survey and use our voices in the community to build frameworks for the right actors, governance and public services. Let’s build peace together,” it said.

The statement said the time for peace promotion was urgent as recent neighbouring events had made strict demands on governments for transparency in public services.

The importance of freedom of speech, correct information sharing between governments and the citizenry was crucial in violence prevention within the West African sub-region, the statement said.

The company believed the lack of communication, transparency and corruption could lead protests to turn violent very quickly without the proper education and resources from both citizens, police and governments alike.

“It is important that all agencies and citizens are mindful of how these situations can quickly turn without the knowledge of who the bad actors are in the crowd from all sides,” it said.

It reiterated the need for trust to be restored in the public sphere in West Africa and condemned corruption and violence as ways of abusing power.

“We can save many innocent lives through peace education with the understanding of the root causes of unrest in our community.”

The statement said both teams conducting the survey were committed to providing smart city resources with active citizen engagement in the coming months.

It encouraged the public to take part in the survey, which kept all information confidential, on https://thevoicesforpeace.secure.force.com/r/ghana.

“We will continue to share updates through credible news sources of our research and how citizens can get involved. Please visit www.thevoicesforpeace.com and share using the hashtag #thevoices4peace,” the statement said.

IoTeedom, an international company that offers smart services and solutions for Internet of Things (IoT), renewable energy, telecom and fibre optic networks among other things, is partnering Confluent Media in the survey.