The Institute of Global Peace and Conflict Management (IGPCM) has called on communities across Central and East Africa to move beyond the symbolic observance of peace and make daily investments in dialogue, human development and trust.
The call was made by Dr Richard NN, the IGPCM Liaison Officer for Central and East Africa, in an address to mark the International Day of Peace.
Addressing diplomats, youth leaders, women peacebuilders, traditional authorities and members of the Institute, Dr Richard said the world pauses each year on 21 September, following a UN resolution, for a global ceasefire and non-violence, symbolised by the ringing of the Peace Bell in New York, cast from coins donated by children in 60 countries.
He said this year’s theme, ‘Invest in Peace – For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day,’ is particularly urgent for the region.
‘A region that knows the cost of war,’ he said, pointing to the continuing displacement in Cameroon’s Far North, Northwest and Southwest regions, the protracted conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan and South Sudan, and the slow rebuilding of community trust in the Central African Republic.
‘The map of our region on this Peace Day reminds us that agreeing on a day costs nothing, but agreeing to put down a weapon costs courage,’ Dr Richard said.
He argued that peace, as defined by the United Nations, is not only the absence of conflict but also the presence of dialogue, dignity and co-operation. For Central and East Africa, he said, peace must rest on three practical investments.
First, investment in dialogue. He said wars in the region start when listening stops, when young people are excluded, and when grievances over land, identity and resources have no platform.
He urged support for local dialogue in chiefdoms, churches, mosques, market associations and schools, noting that ‘the most powerful peace agreement is often not signed in a foreign capital, but in a community hall in Buea, in Goma, in Bangui’.
Second, investment in people, not war economies. ‘You cannot build peace on an empty stomach and an empty classroom,’ he said, stressing that peace will remain fragile as long as young people in Douala or Bukavu see more opportunity in armed groups than in workshops or universities.
Investing in peace, he said, means investing in clinics that serve everyone, schools that welcome every child, and courts that are fair to every citizen.
Third, investment in trust, which he described as the lowest currency in many communities today.
He praised what the UN calls the ‘everyday architects of peace’ – women mediating farmer-herder conflicts, moto-taxi union leaders stopping fights, and journalists refusing to publish hate speech – and said IGPCM’s role is to find, train, connect and amplify them.
Dr Richard closed with a challenge to participants to make one concrete investment in peace within 24 hours: listen to someone they disagree with without interrupting, share a story of peace from the region rather than violence, and mentor one young person vulnerable to radicalisation.
‘Peace is not a UN event. It is a daily decision,’ he said.
He reaffirmed IGPCM’s commitment to building bridges where walls have been erected and to teaching conflict transformation where retaliation is taught.