By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Oct. 30, GNA - The West African Network for Peace building (WANEP), has underscored the need to include women in addressing farmer-herder conflict in West Africa.
Dr Chukwuemeka B. Eze, Executive Director of WANEP noted that pastoral movements, occasioned by the consequences of climate change and environmental degradation, continues to fuel tensions and conflict between farmers and herders within the sub region.
Dr Eze made these remarks during the opening of a two-day Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on Enhancing Gender Inclusive Response to The Farmer-Herder Conflict in West Africa.
The farmer-herder conflict had been described as the gravest security challenge, claiming far more lives than the Boko Haram insurgency. It has displaced hundreds of thousands and sharpened ethnic, regional and religious polarization.
Although there are existing national and community level mechanisms to address the phenomenon, there are also gaps between national mechanisms and the ECOWAS Protocol on Transhumance on one hand and the coordination gaps in terms of harmonization and synergy on the other.
Among the objectives of the meeting was to harness women and youth perspectives and concerns on intervention in dialogue and mediation to forestall farmer-herder conflict; and to share experiences on existing instruments and normative frameworks to support women’s meaningful involvement.
Dr Eze said reports by the WANEP National Early Warning System (NEWS) revealed the catastrophic effects of these conflict, where more than 2,000 lives including women, were lost between 2011 and 2016 in Nigeria alone with a further 5,000 people displaced within the same period.
He said despite being the direct victims of conflicts, women had always been excluded in the processes to find lasting solutions to the conflicts; their voices had never been heard neither had they been included in efforts to mitigate the conflict.
He noted that history had shown that women have been playing key roles in informal processes, whereas, at the community level, women were continuously relied upon to utilize their inherent care-giving potentials to broker peace in the event of communal conflicts.
“However, this potential has not translated into formal peace processes where women are glaringly missing on the peace table”, he added.
Dr Eze said it was obvious that there could be no security where women are exposed to violence and no peace where they are ignored, saying, equally, there could be no sustainable solution to the farmer-herder conflict where gender inclusivity fails.
He said it was unfortunate that women’s needs, and perspectives had not been given that attention in efforts to prevent the threat and mitigate impact of the conflict.
The Executive Director there was the need to harness their experience in community dispute management that could be incorporated in response strategies to mitigate the Farmer-Herder conflict.
Madam Salamtu Kemokai, a Representative from the United Nations Women (UN Women), who underscored the need for collaborative efforts, said historically, all of the global actions on gender equality were achieved through women rights’ movement and strategic partnership.
She explained that this was because women were able to mobilize and come together with a common goal that focused on achieving such objectives.
Mr Danjuma Aku, Programme Officer of Rostering and Training at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, noted that, the crisis between farmers and herders had consequential effect on the economic integration objectives of ECOWAS.
He said this had brought about several disruptions on the means of livelihood and disharmony among two professions that should otherwise be complimentary to each other, therefore ECOWAS commends the initiative by WANEP, a long standing partner of ECOWAS.
GNA
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