Action-Aid Trains Youth on Conflict, Gender Responsive Services in Borno

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A humanitarian organisation, Action-Aid Nigeria (AAN), on Wednesday began a two-day conflict sensitivity training exercise for 30 youth and women to enhance the peacebuilding process in Borno.

 

David Habba, Manager Humanitarian and Resilience, AAN, who spoke at the inauguration of the exercise in Maiduguri, said that the youths would be trained under its Youth Organising for Leadership (YOL) project.

 

Habba said the project seeks to build the capacity of the youth to promote active engagement in peacebuilding and gender-responsive public services.

 

He said the objectives were to explore conflict dynamics in the northeast and its implication to strengthen the capacity of young people for public policy in a conflict environment.

 

The manager added that it also aimed at harnessing existing strategies and approaches by youth groups for shared learning and building solidarity for development programming in Borno.

 

“One of the key learning from YOL project intervention in Borno State, which is the centre of the insurgency in the northeast, is the need to carry out a conflict sensitivity training for young people.

 

“It is paramount for the people working in this scenario to be able to understand the interaction between their actions and processes with the conflict dynamics in their context.

 

“It is in this light we seek to build the capacity of selected young people on conflict sensitivity programming towards empowering them with the needed skill and knowledge for programming and engaging in a conflict-sensitive environment.

 

“It will also help the project to analyze and ensure that the impact of our engagement will have a positive effect on the state,” he said.

Habba said that participants were drawn from the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), media, development organisations, youth and women groups.

 

According to him, the YOL project is being implemented in collaboration with the Action-Aid Denmark (AADK), Global Platform and Activista Nigeria in Akwa Ibom; Borno, Enugu, Kaduna and Lagos States as well as Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

 

Also speaking, Kenneth Okoineme, National Youth and Governance Adviser in the organisation, said YOL is a three-year project funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), to mobilize young people and their organisations for progressive social change.

 

Okoineme explained that the project aimed at enhancing young people’s power to influence public expenditure towards gender-responsive public service.

 

He said it also focused on generating information and education materials to engage young people on issues of public finance, tax, encourage initiatives and policy reform agenda for youth development as well as other related International Trade Issues.

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