Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso — The Burkina Faso Minister for Education and Literacy, Honourable Koumba Boly, has called on ECOWAS Member States to promote the peace culture in the region through value-centred education. Opening a regional technical workshop in the nation's capital for the validation of the ECOWAS Reference Manual on the Culture of Peace, Human Rights, Citizenship and Regional Integration, the minister noted that development is dependent on peace and security, adding that "education remains the main means for the realization of the ECOWAS regional integration agenda." She therefore urged participants attending the five-day workshop to enrich the Reference Manual, which is a product of a wide consultative process initiated in 2006 across the West African region, taking into account the experiences of experts in peace-building in the region and outside, including from UNESCO.
The minister also suggested that a validated Manual should be translated into local languages for teaching in educational institutions in Member States and for ease of dissemination to Community citizens. The ECOWAS Commissioner for Human Development and Gender, Dr. Adrienne Diop, represented by the Director of Education, Prof Abdoulaye Maga, linked the recurrent crises and instability in the region to retrogression of the high value system that characterized traditional societies in the region. The Commissioner expressed the hope that the Manual would lead to harmonized training on the universal values in various aspects of education to forge a common understanding that respects the diversities and differences of Member States. "This will facilitate the transition from the culture of war to a culture of peace, respect for human life, human rights and dignity, and rejection of violence, as well as equality of men and women," she said, adding that the aim is to entrench universal justice, liberty and equality, good governance, democracy and integration, on a foundation of peace to promote education for development.
On behalf of the ECOWAS Commission, the Commissioner thanked development partners, especially the African Development Bank and UNESCO for their support in the development of the Reference Manual and Regional Integration within the framework of the Support to ECOWAS for Peace Development Project (PADEP). The African Development Bank's representative at the meeting, Mr. Pierre Ouédraogo, said the Bank is encouraged by ECOWAS's sustained efforts in the promotion of peace, management and prevention of conflicts in Member States. Expressing a similar sentiment, his counterpart from the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Africa (BREDA), Mr. Yao Ydo, described the development of the seven-module Manual on the Culture of Peace as part of the many areas of collaboration between ECOWAS and UNESCO. According to him, UNESCO would like to underscore two of the Manual's modules - regional integration and values - which are critical to the realization of the ECOWAS Vision 2020 for transformation from an ECOWAS States to an ECOWAS of People. He noted that since, individually, Member States cannot achieve much, there is the need to create the critical mass of citizens around the integration and sustainable development agenda.
The main objective of the technical meeting co-sponsored by the ECOWAS Commission and the African Development Bank, through the ECOWAS Peace Fund, is to improve and validate the Manual for submission to a ministerial meeting in September 2012. Attending the workshop are experts from ECOWAS Member States, resource persons from universities, centres of excellence and civil society organizations, representatives of development partners, including the African Development Bank, the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie, the German Agency for International Development (GIZ), the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and ECOWAS Commission officials. Also present at the opening ceremony was the Burkina Faso Minister for Secondary and Higher Education, Prof. Moussa Ouattara.
