SEARCH, ACRESAL train staff on conflict monitoring, reporting – The Sun Nigeria

From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi

As part of efforts to ensure successful implementation of World Bank projects in selected Northern States of the country, Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL), has hired the expertise of Search for Common Ground, an International peace building Organization, to train its staff on conflict management.

The participants who are selected from seven Northern states including Benue, are being trained on Stakeholders Mapping, Conflict Monitoring, Conflict Reporting and Mediation Step Dow to build their capacities to implement their projects in peaceful communities.

Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) is a World Bank-financed project designed to tackle the pressing issues of land degradation and climate change in the 19 states of Northern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) through an integrated catchment management approach.

Speaking to newsmen after the opening session, the Management Information System Specialist at the Federal Project Management Unit of Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL), Mbalamen Yuwa, said the region is characterized by environment of fragility, degradation of natural resources, poor agricultural productivity, climate risks, desertification, poor penetration of modern technology, and weak institutional capacity, conflict especially, farmers and herders crisis among others.

She stated that ACReSAL Project hired Search for Common Ground, a peace building organization, to train its staff in peace building and conflict resolution.

She said “We are all aware of conflicts in Nigeria especially in the Northern Nigeria; North East, North West and North Central, specifically, farmers-herders clashes and so when the project was being planned, the designers included this activity, peace building and conflict resolution.

“So we are here for capacity building to learn more about Early Warning System, EWS, recognizing when a conflict occurs, and how to nip it in the bud on time before it degenerates into violent conflicts that can destroy our investments in the communities.

“We do not want to invest so much in the communities and conflicts would come and have them destroyed.”

Speaking to newsmen also, the National Conflict and Policy Analyst with Search for Common Ground, Andy Nkemnaeme, said they are in Benue to train the ACRESAL staff in the North Central zone of Nigeria on Conflict Resolution, Conflict Reporting, Conflict Monitoring, and Stakeholders Mapping, to bring out their capacity to implement their projects.

While stating that no development can be achieved without peace, Nkemnaeme said the training is structured to empowered them with the rudiments of peace building so they can have a peaceful Community to implement their projects.

He said “They’re working in the areas of farmers/herders conflicts especially in Benue and all the seven states and also in the North West and the North East. They must have to be able to create peaceful communities for their project to be successful.

“We believe in early warning and early response. They say prevention is better than cure. It’s better we prevent a violence from happening than waiting to react after the violence happens.

“So we are going to teach them how to monitor conflicts to ensure they see the early warning signs and indicators of conflicts and be able to report it accordingly and in the shortest possible time.

“Because they are also going to work with the people in the community, we are also going to take them on stakeholders mapping so they can know the right people to work with and also know how to handle those who would want to be spoilers to the project.

He said the six days training will ensure that at the end of the project, ACRESAL would have created peaceful Communities and their projects would be implemented without creating any harm.

He said Search is also working with Benue State Government to build up their early warning and early response situation room saying “We want to facilitate a conflict situation room for Benue state while we have monitors in the field to monitor conflicts, incidences, indicators, signs of conflict as they arise so that conflicts can be nipped in the bud.

“We are not interested in conflict happening. We are interested in preventing conflict. So we are on Benue to ensure that violent conflicts are prevented. Conflict would also arise but we want to prevent it from being violent.

The project is scheduled to run for six years, ending in 2028 and would be implemented in 19 states including Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Kogi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kwara, Kebbi, Niger, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, Plateau, and the FCT.

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