Mr Yakubu Duogu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was committed to its avowed principle of ensuring the maintenance of peace and harmony in the country.
He said with the coming into force of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), the stage was now set for the mobilization of resources for the sustainable development of the Northern Savannah Zone.
Speaking at the official opening of a three-day workshop on peace building and conflict prevention on Monday, Mr Duogu said putting the necessary mechanisms in place to ensure peaceful co-existence amongst the people would certainly set the tone for achieving the "Better Ghana Agenda" through the effective implementation of the SADA Programme.
Additionally, he said, there was growing optimism about the eminent development opportunities to be provided by the oil and gas industry.
The workshop, which was organised for former Assembly members, peace centered local NGOs, youth, women and opinion leaders in the Wa Municipality, was under auspices of the Wa Municipal Assembly.
It was in collaboration with the United Nations agencies including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the United Nations University (UNU) as well as UNICEF.
Mr Duogu said the essence of the training was to equip participants with relevant skills to enable them understand, analyze and anticipate potential conflict sources and come out with efficient strategies to effectively deal with them.
He said the training workshop was also designed to mainstream peace building and conflict prevention into the Municipal Assembly's Medium Term Development Plan, which seeks to ultimately build an environment that would ensure maximum human security within the confines of the Municipality.
The MCE said achieving human security goes beyond conflict prevention and management.
He said it encompasses the comprehension of all factors that undermines human dignity and development.
"The understanding of peace should not only be limited to the absence of violence, but also be linked to a condition of safety in terms of protection from harm and the guarantee of access to all the basic necessities of life including freedom" he noted.
Mr Duogu said peace and unity were prerequisite for meaningful development, saying in the absence of these, no matter how laudable programmes were, they could not be translated into meaningful development.
He therefore urged the participants to take the workshop seriously to enable them to use the skills acquired to bridge gaps and mend fences that would positively affect the lives of people in their various communities.
Mr Edward Adimazoya, Programme Manager, UN Joint Programme on Human Security, said the programme was just one out of the many peace and security interventions designed by the UN Agencies to be rolled out in the Upper West, Upper East and the Northern Regions within three years.