Informal peace structures critical to conflict prevention – Peace Council

The Reverend Dr Emmanuel Badu Amoah, Ashanti Regional Executive Secretary of the NPC, said community-based actors, including religious leaders, traditional authorities, local watchdog committees and other influential individuals, often had access to vital information on emerging tensions long before such issues came to the attention of formal security and governance institutions.

Rev Dr Badu Amoah said the challenge was to strengthen coordination between informal peace structures and the formal peace architecture to ensure that information gathered at the community level was properly assessed and acted upon before conflicts escalated.

The National Peace Council (NPC) has underscored the importance of informal peace structures in providing early warning information to prevent conflicts from escalating into violence.