Peace Dialogue Takes Off In Accra

Accra, Sept. 18, GNA - Generations For Peace (GFP), with its local partner Youngstars Development Initiative (YDI), has started the implementation of its latest peace building programme dubbed: 'Dialogue for Peace Programme (DPP)'.

A statement issued by GFP and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Monday said the DPP was focusing on engaging members of the country's two main political youth clubs- the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) - at the University of Ghana in dialogue sessions.

It said the DPP was based on the Transformative Dialogue approach which gave people the opportunity to talk about issues they considered important, using words of their own choosing.

It noted that it aimed to increase participants' understanding of the conflict, their ability to respond to it positively, and interact with the others involved constructively.

The statement quoting the Country Director of YDI, Naa Adei Boateng commenting on the programme said: 'GFP chose to pilot the Transformative Dialogue approach, as it matches our overall mandate of participatory, volunteer-led programming. This approach sees conflict as arising from a crisis in human interaction.

'The people and groups involved in conflict situations relate to each other in hostile, aggressive, and prejudicial ways, which can lead to violence and this is where we come in'.

The statement said the transformative Dialogue was different from other approaches because it was participant-led and non-directive.

It said it was the participants themselves who picked the topic of conversation and who ultimately decided which direction the dialogue programme would go.

'This party-driven approach to dialogue provides people caught up in a conflict with a space and a chance to speak and be heard; but, it is up to the participants to decide what to do with that opportunity.

'DPP is currently being piloted in three countries namely Ghana, Georgia and the Republic of Macedonia. In all three, a DPP was chosen as it was better suited to the context than GFP's other vehicles for peace building,' it added.

YDI is an international nongovernmental organisation that focuses on enhancing leadership among youth, improving the competencies of youth organisations involved in development programmes, and strengthening youth representation on issues that affect their well being for nation building;

GFP is a Jordan-based global non-profit organization founded by HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein and Sarah Kabbani Al Feisal, dedicated to sustainable peace building and conflict transformation through sport, arts, advocacy, dialogue and empowerment.

GFP uses sport as an entry point to engage with children and youth, and its carefully-facilitated sport-based games provide a vehicle for integrated education and behavior change.

In addition to the sport-based approaches, GFP has also developed arts, advocacy, dialogue, and empowerment activities to support conflict transformation with children, youth and adults in different contexts.

GNA