The West Africa Peace Ambassadors Network (WAPAN) is an independent not-for-profit civil society organization that serves the young people through peace education and the practical and mutually benefiting ways to deal with violent conflicts away from confrontational approaches and towards collaborative solutions that result in nonzero-sum outcomes and contribute to conflict prevention and peacebuilding in West Africa, particularly in Ghana. Our goal is to train and empower the African youth with conflict management and peacebuilding, and conflict prevention and mediation skills to become peace ambassadors in their communities and contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 16. To achieve the objectives of the organization, WAPAN has five unit that work concomitantly. They include:

1) Peace and Conflict Research Unit

2) Training and Advocacy Unit

3) Peace Clubs and Volunteers Unit

4) Community -Humanitarian Aid Unit and

5) Youth and Leadership Unit

Peace and Conflict Research

Guided by ‘do no harm principle’ the unit investigates the associated theories and concepts underpinning peace and conflict in order to innovate and apply new paradigms for addressing the complex conflict challenges facing Ghana, West Africa, and the world at large. Similarly, the unit analyses conflict scientifically to develop conceptual and empirical understanding of the conflict and the skills required to resolve the conflict permanently. The unit research into conflict issues and publishes scientific papers related to chieftaincy conflict, land and natural resource conflicts, ethnic conflict, electoral and political uprising and makes proposals to policy makers. The unit hopes to collaborate and partner with development agencies and educational institutions in the future to carry out certificate and diploma courses for students, civil servants, youth and community leaders, staff of NGOs, and other individuals in the fields of:

  1. Conflict Management and Peacebuilding
  2. Conflict Analysis
  3. Peace Education
  4. Conflict and Prevention, Mediation and Negotiation
  5. Conflict Resolution
  6. Good governance and Democracy
  7. Human Rights Education
  8. Community Research, Writing and Scientific Publications

Training and Advocacy

The unit is responsible for educating and training youth, grassroots peace campaigners and traditional leaders with conflict resolution and mediation skills for them to gain a steep understanding of how conflicts emerge and how they can be managed and solved in a nonviolent manner. The unit also works to defend the basic rights of people, campaigns for women’s participation in peace and conflict, decision making processes in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. It also champions the interests of the vulnerable and voiceless in the society, including children, women and the aged. The specific activities carried under this unit include;

  1. Holds community level peace campaign and training.
  2. Organizes peace lectures before, during and after elections.
  3. Train and empower the African youth to become ‘Peace Rebels’ /agents
  4. Holds peace and mediation training.
  5. Holds a capacity building training programs for community leaders.

Peace Clubs and Volunteers

In this difficult period of struggle for world peace, the WAPAN strongly believes that children can be used to promote peace since they are the highly affected during and after conflict time. And as such, WAPAN seeks to establish peace clubs in basic, high schools, and tertiary institutions in West Africa to train the students on the culture of peace so that they serve as peace ambassadors in their families, schools and communities. We orient and train the peace club members to exhibit the features and byproduct of peace, including issues of peaceful coexistence, tolerance, equality, respect for human rights, fairness and justice. So far, the unitt has established peace clubs in nine different schools in Ghana and its hoping to expand to other regions and the West African countries.

The unit focus much attention in conflict prone areas in West Africa, particularly in Northern Ghana where violent conflict is high.

The peace volunteers’ program is directed towards providing dedicated volunteer educators with requisite training to assist teaching and learning activities in deprived rural schools in conflict prone areas. The volunteers are well trained on effective teaching and learning skills, and how to cope with working conditions in conflict areas. This unit works closely with the Peace and Conflict Research Unit to identify areas where conflict situations are further deepening the unwillingness of teachers accepting teaching appointments to poor, conflict-ravaged areas. Some of our projects include 1) Rural Peace Promoters 2) Soccer4Peace Festival, and 3) Peace Club Schools. We hope to have 10,000 Peace Clubs established in basic/high and tertiary level across West Africa by 2030. Activities under the projects are:

  1. Essay and debate competitions on peace.
  2. UN peace day celebrations and peace walks.
  3. International and national peace conference.
  4. Youth and leadership conference.
  5. Celebration of peace games and festivals.
  6. Peace workshops and seminars.
  7. Annual national peace awards.
  8. Human rights campaigns and advocacies.

Community – Humanitarian Aid

WAPAN embarks on community service and development programs to inform the rural and peri-urban dwellers on their basic human rights and privileges. WAPAN trains students (undergraduate) to volunteer on community demand-driven projects. Under this unit, we establish community peace and crime combat committees. WAPAN hope to establish a Conflict Devastation Fund (CDF) to provide financial assistance and humanitarian aid to the motivated, but underserved school children in conflict prone areas. WAPAN lobbies for scholarships and grants for the students in conflict and war-shattered areas in West Africa.

Youth Development and Partnership

The WAPAN acknowledges that young people play significantly adverse role in conflict due to lack of opportunities (jobs) and proper education. Therefore, the unit seeks to build the capacity and empower the youth with the skills to create employment for themselves. The unit runs youth development and leadership training and skills courses in graphic designing and hairdressing, and a training program designed for community youth groups to focus on conflict management, peacebuilding, and reconciliation to build networks of support within the community that empowers and enable young people to act and influence positive change. The unit seeks to collaborate and partner with both local and international peace, conflict and development agencies to work towards the global peace agenda. Currently, WAPAN works in partnership with organizations such as Child Hope Relief-Ghana, West Africa Center for Peace Foundation, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL)-South Korea, Kick 4 Christ, Ghana, and some Rotary Clubs.