Participants at a Regional Workshop on Agriculture and Pastoralist Conflicts in West
Africa have agreed that conflicts between farmers and herders should not be ethnicised.
In addition, none of the parties should be demonised against each other.
They recognised that for centuries, nomads and sedentary were able to live in harmony.
These were contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day workshop organised by West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP) for 50 participants at Ouagadougou drawn from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali,
Niger, Nigeria and Togo.
It was on the theme; “Agriculture and Pastoralist Conflicts in the ECOWAS Sub-Region: A Step towards Concrete and Sustainable Actions”.
The participants deliberated on the causes of agro- pastoralist conflicts, developed mechanisms and solutions for sustainable and more effective actions, and identified the different actors and organizations for the implementation of the actions.
They contended that conflicts that occurred, violent and destructive that they might be, should never overshadow the good practices and successful coexistence between farmers and herders in the ECOWAS zone.
“Violent conflicts are anomalies that we must learn to prevent and address,” the participants said.
The participants expressed profound gratitude to the Government of Burkina Faso for the hospitality and the Government of Finland for financing the workshop.
They called on WANEP to ensure the monitoring and implementation of these recommendations, and pledged their commitment to collaborate towards the implementation of
these new recommendations in member countries of
ECOWAS.
The communiqué said the workshop was organised to deepen understanding of the dynamics and trends of such conflicts and explore options for the establishment of early warning and proactive response mechanisms.
Others are to enhance co-ordination and information sharing between the eight countries of concern, promote co- ordination, identification and dissemination of good practices.
The rest are to encourage networking and partnerships among actors at intergovernmental and nongovernmental institutions.
According to the participants, the causes of agro-pastoralist Conflicts included misperceptions and deep-seated inter- communal prejudice between farmers and herders.
Others are little recognition or consideration of the concerns of pastoralism in national policies of countries in the sub-region as well as ignorance about the benefits that can be derived from transhumance for host countries as well.
Mechanisms and solutions for more efficient and sustainable actions included the reactivation of support programme for the benefit of transhumance and setting up of joint committees.
Empowerment and capacity building of local structures to resolve agro-pastoral conflict, promote and encourage sustained dialogue between farmers and pastoralists through the establishment of committees to discuss among others the mutual benefits of transhumance.
The participants recommended that actors and
organisations to implement mechanisms and solutions should include governments through the relevant Ministries or Departments, Central and Local Governments, Civil Society Organisations, ECOWAS, the Private Sector, Technical and
Financial partners.