The International Peace Training Institute (IPTI) West Africa says it has trained more than 13 social workers in peace building techniques.
The institute announced this on Friday in Benin that the trainees got useful knowledge on how to build peace through proper conflict analysis and assessment.
The News Agency of Nigeria NAN reports that the training was in collaboration with Mediators Beyond Borders International and Rotary International.
Speaking about the training Mrs Agatha Osieke, the Coordinator, Partners For Peace (P4P)in Edo, said one crucial way to build peace was to get to the root cause of the conflicts.
Osieke, in her lecture entitled “conflict assessment and conflict analysis” identified poor communication, lack of compromise, desire for power, making assumptions and lack of empathy, among others as causes of conflict.
She explained that perception and communication were key to handling conflicts which could impact on the way people would react to issues that might lead to conflict.
Osieke listed some conflict handling styles to include avoidance, confrontation, compromise, accommodating and joint problem solving method.
“Conflict is neutral when it doesn’t lead to loss of life but conflicts can become negative when there is loss of lives and destruction of property.
“However, there are conflicts that will make you achieve your desired goals.
“Handling of conflict depends on the way conflict is perceived. Education and experience are key in conflict issues,” she added.
Also, Mrs Flora Bossey, an alumna of the institute, in her paper presentation on communication tools, stressed that active listening was key to decoding a message in communication.
Bossey listed People, Place and Process as the three Ps critical aspects of conflict analysis and assessment.