Air Vice Marshall (AVM) Griffiths S. Evans, Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), has urged matriculants of the Master of Arts in Gender, Peace and Security (MGPS) programme to interrogate issues of conflict and tension.

He said the students need to interrogate and find solutions to the slow or poor implementation of policy commitments on gender equality in many spheres and the prominent disparity between policy commitments to gender equality and the financial provision to actualise them.

He said there was also the need for them to probe the gendered dimension of power and inequalities, as well as the potential and promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example, to promote peaceful and inclusive societies and reduce inequality.

AVM Evans made the call at the matriculation ceremony of the 7th batch of MGPS at the Centre in Accra, during which a total of 39 students were matriculated.

AVM Evans noted that: "Our world today, is still replete with security threats and conflicts that are both national and transnational in origin, in character and in repercussions".

He explained that the origins of these conflicts were largely self-inflicted than externally triggered.

"Issues such as political and governance failure, human rights violation, social/political and marginalisation, identity and social exclusion, breed conflicts and lead to the destabilisation of nations and regions," he said.

AVM Evans mentioned that others were perceived injustice, corruption, population pressure, competition for natural resources and religion.

“It is a fact that the gendered dimension of these issues and the inequalities therein are often minimalised or lost when it comes to preventive or remedial discourses on conflict," the Commandant stated.

"This is because of the systemic gender inequality that has existed in all facets and spaces for years, and which has evolved to become the norm," he added.

Dr Emma Binkorang, Deputy Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research, KAIPTC, advised the matriculants to not only leave with average grades, but also take the opportunity to acquire new knowledge, learn new things, develop new skills and enhance their personal attributes.