Abdoulie Jaiteh, The Communications Consultant at ITC
By Fatou Sillah
The International Trade Center (ITC), under the I4P project, organized a two-day training for musicians, poets, dancers, painters, cultural troupes, and partners on peace-building communication techniques. The goal was to create a peace-building communication product for advocacy, especially in Foni.
This engagement aimed to build the creative industry’s capacity for peace-building communication techniques.
The I4P project, a joint initiative by ITC, UNDP, and UNESCO, aims to strengthen The Gambia’s national peace-building architecture and promote social cohesion. Funded by the United Nations Peace-building Fund, this three-year project focuses on fostering social cohesion, increasing institutional capacities in sports and the arts, and promoting economic participation in targeted communities.
It also aims to strengthen the capacities of the media, CSOs, and leaders to address hate.
Abdoulie Jaiteh, a communication consultant at ITC, provided an overview of the training to the press.
“One of the key intervention areas of this project is in the Fonis because we understand that Foni is prompt to conflicts, whether it is political conflicts, or the conflict in Casamance over spilling in Foni. We designed this training to bring diverse groups of artists together and enhance their capacities in peacebuilding communication techniques, but beyond that, to discuss what we can do together or how we can synergize to come up with a peace building product that we will be able to use in our peace building communication messaging,” He Said.
Pa Modou Yafa, an artist with Bright Stars Entertainment Group, believes the training will significantly bolster their efforts to promote peace in The Gambia.
“It would capacitate our understanding, I believe, to be able to talk to people about peacebuilding. Because it’s not only about entertainment itself, but when we talk about peacebuilding it means creating conditions in order to address the underlying causes of conflict. And also to make sure we promote understanding, dialogue, and reconciliation. So by going to this project or going through this training itself, it will not only help us to understand, but it will also build our capacity to be able to know the techniques to use. And when we talk about techniques, we are talking about capacity building, dialogue facilitation, cultural diversity, and the list goes on,” he explained.
Bintou Sanneh, a poet and student of peace and conflict studies, underscores the significance of training to refine her skills.
“I believe it will help enhance my craft in a way to be able to understand what peace is in general, but also to be able to work in communities and know how to be tolerant. As poets, we do more with creativity, and when we are thinking about what peace is and dynamics, we would be able to use our creative skills to be able to do this in poetry, so I believe. it is not just enough creativity, but it’s also important that we know what peace is and some of the strategies to use to advocate peace,” she explained.