The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Center for Conflict and Gender Studies (CCGS) of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on February 1, 2018, to invest in peacebuilding and gender-related research and capacity building in the Niger Delta region.

Through this partnership, PIND would provide an annual capacity building program for students of CCGS UNIPORT to promote learning and research on issues of gender equality and mitigation of conflict in the region. Furthermore, the program will cover capacity building to postgraduate and Masters’ degree students (of the same institution) on early warning conflict trends, in-depth conflict analysis and mediation skills.

The CCGS is an institute within the University of Port Harcourt tasked with the overarching goal of equipping male and female students towards achieving sustainable peace and human development through evidence-based policy research in peace, conflict and gender studies.

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Director of CCGS, Dr Fidelis Allen, believes partnerships like this facilitates problem-solving in the region.

He said;

“This is something good for us at the Centre. On behalf of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, I’m thanking PIND and hope that it will help us address some of the problems that have affected the region. The Centre for Conflict for Conflict and Gender Studies has to be seen as an institutional response to the problems that we are surrounded with in the Niger Delta. This MoU will help us because we need people, we need the capacity to respond to those problems.”

PIND and CCGS intend to raise a generation of peace actors empowered to reduce violence in the region through research and conflict management through this partnership. Olatunji Idowu, PIND’s Deputy Executive Director, hopes the partnership would advance peacebuilding efforts, especially in view of upcoming elections which have been shown to strain peaceful existence in the region.

In his own words;

PIND is open to partnerships, and it’s part of the DNA of those who set us up, and we continue to do things like that. In the Peace Building area, that value proposition is more pertinent. Whether it is with Academic institutions, donor agencies, or even government we are always there trying to do things. This year is going to be more interesting as people prepare for the forthcoming elections. I think the role of those of us in that space is to be actively out there in the trenches to engage a lot. This is something we’re looking forward to doing with the Centre and we’re glad that there’s an understanding between us and the Centre. We look forward to a good partnership’

PIND is addressing deeply rooted socio-economic problems in the Niger Delta by expanding its portfolio of development projects, grants and partnerships which will, in turn, foster sustained peace for equitable regional development.

See photos from the event below