The validation was held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel. The project is being led by the Ministry of Interior and the Office of the President alongside the West Africa Network for Peace building The Gambia and UNDP.
The project intervention seeks to highlight non-coordinated and ad-hoc nature of conflict prevention and peace building mechanism in the country.
At the validation ceremony, Assan Tangara, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Interior, who deputised for the minister, recalled that in 2013, the UNDP defined infrastructure for peace as a network of interdependent system, resources, values and skills gathered by government, Civil Societies, communities and institutions to promote dialogue and consultations to prevent conflict through peaceful mediation in areas where violence occurs at any given time.
“ It’s our responsibility as peace advocates to ensure that everyone lives safe and secured environment without fear or threat of violence and any other forms of violence not tolerated by law or their traditional norms and practices.”
Alhagie Ababucarr Cham, chairman of the Technical Working Group, expressed hope that the long awaited structure, as expressed by Gambians during the recent WANEP conducted regional consultation in The Gambia specific infrastructure for peace, would decisively enhance their capability to deal positively, with a huge sense of togetherness and in peace.
Aissata De, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), informed that UN have come a long way towards promoting initiatives that has led to the establishment of the I4P since 2018, adding that its partners have also conducted the 2019 conflict and development analysis, which she said, identified conflict drivers and peace engines. This, she added, has triggered the design of several UN PBF projects in The Gambia.
