Swazi Observer

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STOP THE VIOLENCE, FIND PEACEFUL RESOLUTION – WOMEN INDABA

By ANDILE DLAMINI | 2022-12-08

The African Women's Peace and Development Foundation (AWPDF) has expressed concerns that if the political situation remained unaddressed, the country would see a resurgence of the violence and further deterioration of living standards.

The AWPDF held a two-day women’s peace building indaba in collaboration with CANGO. The peace-building indaba was the first of a series of consultative forums that will be held with women at different levels and from different constituencies.

It is the beginning of a process, which is anticipated to generate strategic key points for more focused and sustainable women's participation in peace-building, development and governance.

The indaba unanimously agreed that there could be no development without peace, and no peace without development, hence the urgency of stopping the violence and finding a peaceful resolution to the current conflict.

The organisation’s chairperson, Tizie Maphalala, said there was identification of a diversity of local, national, regional and international stakeholders who were relevant and should be engaged for this process.

According to Maphalala, the indaba provided a unique opportunity for women in Eswatini to reflect on and engage each other’s perspectives on the current socio-economic and political situation, current initiatives they were implementing and the role they could play in ending the violence and building sustainable peace.

“Over the course of the two days, women shared experiences of the challenges they face in their daily realities and how these have been exacerbated by both COVID-l9 and the unprecedented violence witnessed in June, 2021 and its aftermath,” Maphalala stated.

She said they expressed their common pain as grandmothers, mothers, wives/ partners, sisters, aunts and nieces at the bloodshed witnessed since June last year, at having to bury family members and at the continuing trauma of the maimed and their families.

She stated that participants emphasised on the importance of women's inclusion in all aspects of development.

Maphalala further said the women agreed on the need to be proactive and strengthen local level engagement, to promote women working together, and to support one another at community level to overcome the challenges they face.

“In this regard, the indaba was also an opportunity for women to network and gain knowledge about each other’s sectors and mandates. During the indaba, a number of potential development projects on which women can partner across sectors were identified,” she said.

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