New Ethiopian peace project launched

UN agencies and the Ethiopian Ministry of Peace launched an inclusive governance and conflict management project that costs nearly three million USD.
The project seeks to help kick start a national process for inclusive development of a peace building strategy to tackle internal displacement.
The project’s focus is on national level policy and capacity development that aims at resolving key conflict factors by facilitating communal level social cohesion and ensuring national ownership of peace building.
“The current reform will require peace, stability and security to succeed,” says Aeneas Chuma, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator.
The Ethiopian government through the Ministry of Peace is expected to coordinate two other ministries, Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affair’s and the Ministry of Education to work on peace education and hosting dialogue.
“The key pillar of the initiative will focus on youth and women in governance and peace keeping,” Chuma adds.
UNESCO works with the Ministry of Education to review the peace education manual and to look at transformative pedagogical methods for peace building. They will translate it into several languages for training of stakeholders.
“The government strongly believes in consecutive dialogue among communities that helps for bringing sustainable peace all over the country,” says Muferihat Kamil Minister of Peace.
The project that lasts for 18 months, will work all over Ethiopia but pay special attention to cluster zones of Oromia and Somalia regional states.
The joint initiative is paid for by the UN peace building fund and will benefit from the expertise of various UN agencies such as UNDP, IOM, UN Women and UNESCO.
Most displacements in the country are driven by inter-ethnic and inter-regional conflicts in Oromia-Somali and Oromia-SNNPR.
The number of internally displaced people in Ethiopia is currently 2.8 million, according to a report by the United Nations.