By Abbas Bamalli
The Gender Awareness Trust (GAT), with support from Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRING) project, has organised a 3-day training for stakeholders on inclusive peace-building in Katsina.
The GAT Programme Manager, Mrs Sophie Akut, during the training in Katsina on Wednesday, said the exercise is also in collaboration with Tetra Tech International Development.
The initiative funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has been implemented by GAT in Katsina and Kaduna States since June this year.
According to her, the Building Inclusive Peace Project (BIP Project), implemented in Katsina and Kaduna States, is designed to strengthen community-based peace-building structures.
She added that the project aimed to also promote social and gender-inclusive approaches, and drive effective implementation of Women Peace and Security (WPS) frameworks.
“Our overall project goal is to foster inclusive and sustainable peace in both states, by strengthening community resilience, enhancing gender-responsive conflict prevention, and promoting coordinated action among key stakeholders for security, peace and justice.
“To strengthen community-led conflict prevention mechanisms to enhance local capacity for peace-building, is also one of our specific objectives.
“Others include promoting women’s participation, leadership and gender-inclusive strategies in peace building and conflict prevention,” she said.
Akut stated that others are to drive the effective implementation of WPS policies by mobilising key stakeholders, including government, traditional leaders, and civil society.
The programmes manager listed other goals as, “to enhance coordination, partnerships, and accountability among security agencies, policymakers, and community actors for more efficient and impactful WPS interventions.
“To establish robust project management and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) frameworks that ensures timely delivery, continuous learning, and adaptive management of project activities.
Akut explained that the 10-month project also adopted community-centered participation, gender transformative policy institutional alignment and multi-stakeholder collaboration approaches.
She revealed that the training also targeted to strengthen knowledge and skills on gender, inclusive peace-building, conflict prevention, and early warning.
According to her, it also aimes to enhance capacity for advocacy and stakeholder engagement in promoting peace-building.
NAN