UK trains partners, stakeholders on conflict de-escalation
The United Kingdom Government, through its Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has facilitated a two-day conflict-sensitivity programming workshop for its North East Nigeria Transition to Development Programme (NENTAD) partners and other protection working groups in the troubled geo-political zone.
The event, which held in Abuja, focused on how to preemptively identify and mitigate interventions that can create further conflict situations, directly or indirectly.
Relying on a recent survey, which highlighted how economic empowerment intervention in some states in the region was fuelling marital crisis, the parley established that some men in the zone find their empowered women arrogant, repulsive and more difficult to control, hence their resolve to walk away or marry another.
Another area of concern, which necessitated the capacity building, was the imperativeness for the reevaluation of the adoption and roles of local actors in driving most interventions, as events, according to the organisers, have proven most of the groups to be partisan and sometimes culpable in some of the crises.
In a statement, the Conflict Adviser at the FCDO, Paul Nyulakun, noted: “This is an unintended consequence that must be envisaged and mitigated subsequently in project planning, designing and implementation.”
He recommended the effective usage of DNH (Do No Harms) Technique, Conflict/Crisis Tree (a conflict evaluation process), and RPP (Reflecting on Peace Practices) as conflict-sensitivity tools that would internalise sustainable peace in every development project and intervention.
