Story, Louvier Kindo Tombe
Cameroon is presently at the crossroads of peace and security initiatives and each person has a unique role to play in peace building. Unfortunately the women are still lagging behind.
“What drives me most is seeing women at the negotiation table,” says Baiye Frida, women, peace and security expert.
The scribe of BAWAC Cameroon was one of the guest speakers at the discussion, and her presentation focused on leveraging women’s participation in peace building and peace processes in Cameroon.
“We need to begin to lift the cultural, religious, and political barriers that came and impede our development as women,” says Yah Gladys Viban Shang, gender and youth advancement consultant.
“…but we also need to highlight those values that give us value as women and as people.”
Close to 50 local civil society actors, principally women-led organization, including religious and socio-cultural women leaders answered present at the discussion organized by Civic Watch association through the #Defyhatenow initiative.
“Teamwork makes the dream work,” Baiye Frida told the women as she challenged them to take the lead in peace building processes.
“The woman has to start by empowering herself because she can only give what comes from within,” Yah Gladys Viban added.
The meeting held on the theme, “embrace equity: women building peace bridges for a hate free Cameroon”.
The participants shared perspectives and experiences on their role in peace building, in relation to cultural and religious setups.
Women it should be noted are always actors and victims of most crisis around the world, reasons why including them in the peace building processes is always important.
“We are going to sit on the dialogue table as women who have felt the brunt of the crisis,” Baiye Frida told News Upfront.
The women leaders agreed that to move to the negotiation table, they first of all need not only to empower themselves but to empower other groups beginning with those in local communities.
“If change is going to come , it’s going to come from the grassroots,” Yah Gladys Viban said.
According to the leaders of the women-led organizations, their greatest fear is not that they are inaccurate, their greatest fear is that they are powerful beyond measure, but seem not to realise.
“… and it is our power that scares us,” Yah Gladys added.
Power of a woman
Studies have shown that gender equality is a better indicator of the peacefulness of a nation, than other factors like democracy. The social media, has also come with added opportunities.
“We should not be afraid of the social media space, let us use it to our advantage,” Yah Gladys told the leaders.
On average, women experience conflicts differently. They are fast in raising issues during peace building that accelerates the process. Given that they act in the informal, they can easily be granted access to belligerents that men can’t, because conflicts parties see them as less threatening.
Women are good in detecting indicators of violence as well as they are capable of rebuilding peaceful societies after crisis.
Way forward
At the end of the discussion, the women resolved to develop themselves to be able to develop peace building initiatives.
They sent a message to the powers that be, to multiply efforts in empowering women in peace building through capacity building trainings or including women in decision making instances of the country like the National Assembly among others.
