THE ROLE CATHOLIC CLERGY AND LAITY PLAYED IN ANNOUNCED NATIONAL DIALOGUE

WOPEN STRENGTHENED IN MEDIATION, PEACEBUILDING 

By Mildred Ndum Wung Kum

About twenty female civil society leaders under the umbrella Women Peace Builder’s Network WOPEN have been imparted knowledge in the domain of mediation, peacebuilding and conflict analysis. This was during a three day capacity building workshop November 25-27 2020 in Yaounde, dubbed “Strengthening the capacities of the Women Peacebuilders Network in Mediation and Peacebuilding Processes in the Northwest Region”. 

The workshop was organised by Mother of Hope Cameroon MOHCAM in partnership with Women Mediators across the Common Wealth. 

WOPEN blends outfit with Northwest traditional colours, photo session at  Peacebuilding, Mediation workshop.

For three days, the women absorbed knowledge from a cream of resource persons on varied topics related to peace, mediation, conflict, effective communication and the law.

Adah Mbah,  The Chief Executive Officer of MOHCAM stated the motive “our coming together these three days has been to strengthen women civil society Leaders and activists who are already engaged in peace building processes. We understand that peacebuilding is a process and it must start somewhere. The reason why we are carrying out this action is simply because we want to engage more women and to understand the reason why they are engaged in this. So our objectives are simply building the capacity of women peace builders, to strengthen our movement and build sisterhood in order to amplify our voices” she said 

At the session the activities of women peace builders were reviewed including the distance covered and what still needs to be done. 

Adah Mbah, facilitating WOPEN workshop

In a session facilitated by Gladys Foncham, the women noted that they have all been engaged in advocacy on the right to education, mobilisation of other women for peace, protest against human killing and appeals for an end to violence.   

The women were however tasked to get acquainted with tools they need to foster peacebuilding activities. 

In a presentation on Women, Mediation and the Law by Barister Tamon Olivia, she outlined a series of laws that protect the woman folk in peace building including the 1996 constitution in Cameroon, UN Resolution 1325, The Protocol to the national Charter of Human and People's Rights on the rights of Women in Africa, The convention for the Elimination all forms of discrimination against women, The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The National Action Plan among others. 

“As women peace builders and mediators it is very important for us to know the legal framework that is guiding our activities as peace builders. Cameroon is a state of law with many laws; there is no way we can operate without understanding those laws so it is important for us to understand the law as peace builders. At national level we have them, at regional level we have and at global level like resolution 1325 and the National Action Plan. We the women are often ignorant of these laws. When we know these laws, we would be able to properly advocate to be able to influence policy at national level and all other government institutions to ensure that what we are doing is in line with the laws” Barrister Tamon Olivia said, while granting an interview to Info Trends.

In a presentation by a UNDP Peace and Development Advisor- Mireille Kamitatu, on Conflict Analysis tools, timeline, mapping and drivers of Peace, the Women peacebuilders were told to analyse conflict and to impact local structures like the family, schools and religious circles with peace activities. 

The women were also told the importance of communication and the Media. Journalist Rosaline Obah enjoined them to communicate actively, to respect time well by  making use of "credible and consistent media” because communication enables the community to be aware of their activities.

Fany Bessem, member of Women Mediators across the Common Wealth treated the participants on conflict sensitive communication saying that “It would be important that we re-evaluate our action and come out with different plans and strategies where we can effectively communicate to both parties and then we see the results by evaluating our action and getting feedback to the people we are communicating to. We ask both parties what are you not understanding, what you think we are not doing right, how do you think we should communicate best. We sent out a message, we cried, we sent out an appeal. Why are we not getting a response to it”

Two zoom meetings hosted by Robin Neustaeter and Ezabir Ali respectively was part of the three day workshop. Here women listened to the stories of women oppressed by conflicts in Kashmir India. WOPEN was called to keep record of stories in their community and tell these stories.

The women under the banner WOPEN, left with the desire to double their efforts in peacebuilding especially with the notion that when women participate in peace talks, they are more likely to make peace durable.