To reach our target audience, we employ interactive methods, such as seminars, workshops, adult literacy programs, family education, publications, fact-finding visits, and local peace building and peacemaking methods, such as informal socio-cultural activities.
CONFLICT TRACKING AND REPORTING PROGRAMME (CTRP)
Fragile situations are major obstacles to sustainable development, regional and international security. CTRP seeks to understand and detect potential causes of violent conflicts in Africa and rapidly respond to them, using specialized techniques and methods. It is a violence-tracking and prevention programme designed to share information on possible flashpoints with relevant stakeholder groups across government, security agencies, civil society and the donor community; a communication hub that facilitates information flow, rapidly stimulating stakeholders to intervene.
The CTRP constitutes CPPBI’s response to calls for the creation of an Early Warning System (EWS) that can be utilized for tracking and reporting the symptoms of violent conflicts, with a view to suggesting possible entry points for preventive action by stakeholders.DESIRED OUTCOME
- To increase understanding of the factors which catalogue violence and turn fragility into open, widespread violence and of the systemic blockages and policies which constrain institutions from acting fully and promptly on available analyses.
- To develop and harness both local and international knowledge and expertise in the field of conflict prevention and peace building to ensure that all stakeholders can access strong, independent, locally derived analyses in order to facilitate better informed and more evidence-based policy and programming decisions.
PEACE EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY PROGRAMME (PEAP)
The PEAP is designed to educate individuals, groups, organizations (state and non-state) and other critical stakeholders on general issues of peace and conflict, with a view to equipping them with the requisite skills for handling conflict situations whenever they rear their heads. This is based on the conviction that since conflicts originate in the minds of men, it is also in the minds of men that the defense of peace should be constructed.
PEAP also conducts trainings on Active Non-Violence strategies, meant to provide alternatives to violent agitations, especially in situations where conflicts arise from structural violence, oppression, or injustice.
DESIRED OUTCOME
- To bring issues of peace and conflict to the front burner for public discourse and action, with a view to influencing the decision-making processes, and bring about the (re) formulation of policies that would serve as bulwarks against the outbreak of violent conflicts.
- Rebuild and protect all structures of peace in the society.
- Re-engineer societal structures to function effectively for the common good.
LEADERSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAMME (LEP)
It is a statement of fact that most acts of violence are perpetrated by idle individuals, especially in developing sections of the world where the common challenge of corrupt governance with its concomitant negative multiplier effects has created a large pool of jobless, frustrated, dejected, and violent-prone individuals.
The CEP is geared towards empowering the vulnerable members of the society – youths, unemployed, and unskilled with the requisite vocational skills that will enable them, transform their violent impulses into creative abilities.
DESIRED OUTCOME
- To develop the productive capacities of individuals who would otherwise be menaces to the society; that is, to teach productive skills to vulnerable members of the society.
SECURITY AWARENESS PROGRAM (SAP)
Alongside being a crime-bursting strategy that is aimed at assisting the security services in checking acts of criminality – both at their latent and manifest stages – SAP is largely a civil society attempt at creating synergy between security service providers and local communities.
It is a triple-pronged approach to solving the crime problem. It relies on cooperation between security agencies, the mass media – traditional and social – and the general public, in providing information about crimes and those who commit them.
The SAP is a fluid program that sources and gathers intelligence from informants within the local communities and transfers them to security operatives for prompt action. It works like a community crime watch program, which creates avenues for civilians to participate in the task of securing their lives and property. It is a partnership between the local communities and the security services, with CPPBI acting as facilitator.
DESIRED OUTCOME
- Act as a confidence building platform between the security forces and the public.
- Help improve the efficiency of the security services;
- Act as a deterrence mechanism to criminals.
- Contribute to national security.
- Help generate a crime information data bank.
- Bridge the information gap between the public and security agencies, and
- Educate the general public on security issues.
LEADERSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAM (LEP)
LEP is a mentoring program that is specifically targeted at the highly impressionable African youths. It is a “Catch-Them-Young” initiative that aims to help build a non-violent culture of peace, patriotism and nationalism in African youths – the leaders of tomorrow – and to shield them from negative societal values.
DESIRED OUTCOME
LEP is directed at restoring the dwindling fortunes of African countries – Projects that have lost steam over the years due to the deleterious effects of internecine conflicts, coupled with the avoidable leadership deficits of the older generation who have, over the years, failed to consolidate on the labours of the founding fathers’. It is based on the thinking that the future of Africa lies in the hands of her youths, and that the sooner they become aware of their crucial roles in the task of returning their countries’ to the paths of peace, development and growth, the better it will be for the continent and its people.
The program is also aimed at mobilizing African youths from across the world to join in the task of: rebuilding a dilapidated project, restoring Africa back to its pride of place as the cradle of human civilization, restoring a sense of pride in the hearts of African youths about their countries’, and equip African youths with all the right leadership skills they would need to carry on the onerous tasks of running the affairs of their countries’ in future when they succeed the current crop of leaders.
CAPACITY EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM (CEP)
CEP is geared towards empowering the vulnerable members of the society – youths, unemployed, and unskilled, who are mostly used as canon fodders during most violent conflicts – with the requisite skills that will enable them turn their violent impulses into creative abilities. There is a popular maxim that, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. Another adage posits that, “a hungry man is an angry man, and an angry man is a violent man”. It is a statement of fact that most acts of violence are perpetrated by people who have nothing productive to do, especially in developing sections of the world where the common challenge of corrupt governance with its concomitant negative multiplier effects on the citizenry has created a large pool of jobless, frustrated, dejected, and violent-prone individuals.
DESIRED OUTCOME
- CEP aims to help in building up the productive capacities of individuals who would otherwise be menaces to the society. It is an empowerment program that is meant to teach productive vocations to vulnerable members of the society
Peace Journalism Seminars/Workshops
The Peace Journalism Seminars/Workshops series – a subunit of the Peace Education and Advocacy Program – is our attempt to engender the practice of peace Journalism in Africa. It is based on the recognition of the significant role the media plays as either an agent of peace or instrument of discord.
We have organized Peace Journalism seminars, workshops and other talk shops for some media organizations in Nigeria.
Democracy and Human Rights Monitoring
Deficits of democracy, weak institutions and poor leadership are among the main challenges to the effective understanding and practice of human rights in Africa. We address these challenges through our advisory services and technical cooperation programmes, with focus on strengthening the legal framework for human rights protection (institutional and legal reform); capacity building; empowering vulnerable and disadvantaged segments of the society; advocacy, awareness raising and human rights education.
We have developed a Democracy and Human Rights Monitoring Initiative – which builds on our Conflict Tracking and Reporting Program – that is meant to help in tracking and ensuring the proper implementation of the principles of democratic governance, and the practice and protection of human rights in Africa.
Again, we are in the process of commencing the drafting, preparation and publication of our inaugural annual Country Report on Human Rights and Democracy, which will be a summary of our strategies and activities for every calendar year. This report will be expanded to cover the rest of Africa in future.
Again, in collaboration with other partners and stakeholders in the peace project, we are in the process of developing a communication hub through which the practice of democracy and human rights in Nigeria and other African Countries would be monitored and reported.
Voter Education Clinics
Our Voter Education Clinics – a subunit of our Peace Education and Advocacy Programmes – are based on the thinking that electoral irregularities such as rigging, ballot box snatching, intimidation, violence, financial inducements and other bulwarks against peaceful, free, fair and acceptable electoral contests are due largely to ignorance on the part of voters about their crucial roles in the democratic process.
These Programmes have seen our team traverse the hinterlands of Nigeria in efforts to help inculcate positive democratic values into Nigerians. Through a series of well packaged capacity building workshops, interactive seminars and other talk shops targeted at key stakeholders such as youth groups, political parties, community based associations, electoral officials, media organizations, security organizations et al, we have been able to spread our gospel of peaceful electoral processes across a broad spectrum of the populace.
Our painstaking efforts, through these Voter Education Programs, have positively impacted the commendable improvements in the conduct and outcome of recent polls in Nigeria.
The Catch Them Young Initiatives
Our Catch Them Young Initiative – which builds on the Leadership Education Program – is premised on the observation that most acts of violence are predominantly perpetrated by youths. It is aimed at breaking the cycle of negative behaviour amongst young people through a unique blend of mentoring and mediation support, guiding them towards an alternative path to becoming better functioning adults and better citizens.
In pursuit of the goal of catching them young, we have kicked off series of leadership training programs in schools – primary, secondary and tertiary in Nigeria. These well-crafted training programs are designed to help the young ones discover their hidden potentials in the early stages of their lives and channel these positive energies towards more productive enterprises.
We have also launched Peace Clubs in some schools in Nigeria. These clubs serve as forums where young minds converge from time to time to compare and discuss ideas on issues of common interests. Peer Mediation Seminars/Workshops – and other socio-cultural activities depicting the utilitarian values of nonviolence – where mediation and conflict resolution skills are taught, forms the fulcrum of the activities under this initiative.
The initiative has been hugely successful in helping reform disaffected youngsters who struggle with mainstream education, helping to re-engage and encourage them to become responsible and trustworthy members of the society.
Early Warning Services
Our Early Warning Services – a unit of our Conflict Tracking and Reporting Program – is a violence-tracking project that is designed to swap information on possible flashpoints with relevant stakeholder groups across government, security agencies, civil society and the donor community.
Making copious use of Media Reports, Research Findings, Existing Literature, Security Reports, Personal Contacts, Telephone Calls, Questionnaires and other information gathering tools, we have been able to package quality data on conflict trends and make its findings available to end users, especially those within the multi-track diplomacy spectrum.
Inter-Religious Dialogue Clinics
With both Muslim and Christian populations in sub-Saharan Africa growing rapidly, issues of inter-faith relations have become increasingly explosive, despite all the measures that have been expedited to address the growing tensions between the two major faiths in countries across the continent that have had to grapple with these searing challenges over the years.
Fostering Interreligious harmony, through dialogue, has been one of the main thrusts of our activities over the years. This is in recognition of the significant roles religion plays in determining the level of peace and stability a society enjoys. We have been facilitating dialogue among key religious organizations and stakeholders – especially the continents chief religions: Christianity and Islam – in our efforts at engendering greater cooperation, harmony, tolerance and peaceful problem solving among the adherents of these religions.