Bolgatanga, Nov. 1, GNA - Mr Emmanuel Bombande, Executive Director of West Africa Network for Peace building, has called on Parliament to speed up the passage of the National Peace Council Bill, to give the regional peace councils legal backing.

He said if the bill is passed into law it would also harmonise the work of the peace councils at the national, regional and district levels.

Mr Bombande made the call while delivering a paper on: "Peace, a Pre-requisite for National Development of Upper East Region" at the weekend, as part of the celebration of Upper East @ 50. He commended government for responding to the call of the United Nations to the Africa Union to develop effective mechanisms for conflict prevention by establishing a National Peace Council in 2006.

Mr Bombande said this led to the setting up of Regional Peace Councils in seven out of 10 regions, which had contributed immensely to peace in Ghana.

He commended the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) for establishing the inter-ethnic peace council, which is mediating in conflicts in the region.

He appealed to the government to replicate such bodies in other regions to deal with latent conflicts.

Mr Bombande emphasised the need for the country to integrate peace building and conflict prevention in the development planning efforts at the district assemblies.

He called on people in the region to shift from the reactionary approach to conflicts to the prevention option, which he explained is less costly in terms of loss of human lives and resources in dealing with the issue.

Mr Bombande reminded the people that no investor would like to invest in an area where there are conflicts, and cited Bawku where a lot of development projects have been moved to other places because of lack of stability.

He said the money that could have been used for infrastructural development of Bawku were channelled into peace keeping.