The Upper East Regional Peace Council has empowered youth and women in the Tempane District to spearhead peace and prevent conflict and infiltration of violent extremism.

At a two-day workshop, the youth, drawn from various border communities of the district, were taken through various topics, including conflict, responding to conflict through dialogue, violent extremism, youth and women as agents of peace, among others.

It formed part of an activity dubbed “Strengthen Local and National Mechanisms and Capabilities for Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) and Conflicts” under the Preventive Approach to Protecting Development in the Gulf of Guinea project.

The project is funded by the governments of Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Korea through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The aim is to increase the participation of women and youth in peace building initiatives, improving the culture of resilience and harmony against violence, enhancing community cohesion among social groupings, and strengthening partnerships between women and youth groups and local authorities in conflict prevention.

Mr Ali Anankpieng, Executive Secretary of the Upper East Regional Peace Council, said the youth were not only active participants in most conflicts but also major stakeholders in the prevention of conflicts and violent extremism.

That, he noted, necessitated the need for their capacities to be built to resolve and prevent conflicts and violent extremism in their communities.

He said the commitment of the youth and women to prevent conflicts could have a great impact and urged them to be agents of peace and deescalate tensions in their communities to prevent conflicts and extremist activities to maintain peace and protect development for their well-being.

Mr William Adongo, Project Officer, PVE, UNDP Ghana, emphasised that a study conducted by the UNDP revealed that women and youth were not fully participating in resolving conflicts, and the training aimed to build their capacities on the role they could play to resolve and prevent conflicts.

“UNDP is interested in how the women and youth could contribute to resolving and preventing conflict in their communities for sustainable peace, and so by giving you this training, we are expecting you to participate fully in resolving and preventing conflicts in your communities,” he told the youth.

He said the UNDP was committed to working with all stakeholders in promoting peace for sustainable development and called on the youth not to relent on their role as agents of peace in spearheading peace in their communities.