Press Release – United Nations Development Programme

Representatives from governments, non government organizations, private sector and development partners will gather in Nadi for a ten-day induction workshop on peace building in the Pacific.Pacific Peace Builders Gather For Induction Workshop
[Nadi- April 28] Representatives from governments, non government organizations, private sector and development partners will gather in Nadi for a ten-day induction workshop on peace building in the Pacific. The workshop starts on May 3 and will be attended by more than fifty participants from Bougainville, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tonga.

The induction workshop will look at identifying the linkages between peace, conflict and development as well as ways to address the root causes of conflict in the Pacific It will also discuss how gender and human rights can be addressed through peace building projects. The workshop is part of a peace building project supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pacific Centre The project, Strengthening Capacities for Peace and Development in the Pacific aims to bring together regional organizations, government and civil society actors to share experiences, discuss the difficult issues and begin to strengthen leadership and capacities for Peace in the Pacific.

The design of the induction workshop was discussed at length at a two day meeting in February this year. Dennis Kuiai, the Chief Executive Officer of the Division of Peace, Reconciliation and Weapons Disposal in the Autonomous Bougainville Government, who was part of the earlier meeting, sees much value in attending the induction workshop.

“Bougainville needs to participate in this programme as we are struggling to balance peace building with development which is the way forward for sustainable peace, security and development. The programme is aimed at strengthening the conflict prevention infrastructure of the region by strengthening the key government and civil society organizations that will be accomplished by supporting conflict prevention initiatives by developing the capacity of the participating organizations in the area of peace and development,” said Mr. Kuiai.

The induction workshop will also lay the foundation for a community of peace practitioners in the Pacific which will share experiences from within the Pacific and beyond.

Coordinator of femLINKPacific, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls said being a member of the Pacific community of peacebuilders was a wonderful opportunity for her organization.

“This is an opportunity to enable more ideas and skills to be included in the pool of decision making within our organisation and networks, especially as, quite often, there are limited support mechanisms including financial resourcing in the peace and security sector. This is also extremely exciting for our organisation as it is investing in women,” said Ms Rolls.

The overall aim of the Strengthening Capacities for Peace and Development in the Pacific project is to strengthen the cadre of peace practitioners from the Pacific whose work and approach will hopefully be further strengthened through skills building, up-scaled policy interventions, the regional sharing of good practices and effective peace building mechanisms suited to the Pacific – and through improved access to resources and experts made available through a peace-net portal supported by the project. One of the key issues is not to duplicate work being done at the regional level or the national level, but rather to complement and add resources to current initiatives.

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