Thirty women from the Shama District of the Western Region have been sensitised on peace building towards the impending district level and the 2020 general election.

The two-day workshop organised by the Western Regional Peace Council with support from the Canadian Government was under the theme: ‘Increasing the voices, participation and inclusion of women for conflict prevention before, during and after Election 2020’.

The chairman of the Western Regional Peace Council (NPC), Reverend John Ernest Kwofie said one of the critical functions of the council was to strengthen capacities of key stakeholders towards conflict prevention, management, resolution and sustainable peace.

He observed that women could be either victims of conflict or agents of peace building because they averted conflicts and have been responsible for resolution of conflicts, bridging clan divisions and also acted as mediators and cited the role women played in Liberia and Somalia conflicts to bring peace.

“The important role women play in the family set up in the event of conflicts and building capacities of women towards the impending elections will make them play their role adequately as peace builders,” Rev. Kwofie.

Dr Enyonam Kudonoo of Ashesi University, noted that understanding what conflict was and its aftermath was enough to solve the presence of violence and how to curb it was a situation that women could handle if well sensitised.

She indicated that conflict could be positive or negative but the council was concerned with positive aspect in order to prevent conflict and sensitising women before the elections would allow them tackle flash zones with well-informed knowledge and skills.

Dr Kudonoo, who was also a member of FemWise African Union and the Ghana Association of Certified Mediators and Arbitrators, cautioned that “the dynamics of conflict are complex if the proper measures are not applied and can escalate beyond management, the use of proper dialogue without any interpret language can easily solve a conflict.”

She said God used words to create the world so it was only the use of good words that could solve any conflict and not weapons.