The SOS Children of Orodara association organized from May 26 to 27, 2023 in Djigouèra, a community forum on responsible citizenship and social cohesion for the benefit of Banzon community actors. The opening ceremony was chaired by the 2th vice-president of the special delegation of Djigouèra, Siaka Ouattara representing the PDS.
The forum was organized by the SOS Children Association of Orodara with the financial support of the consortium Réseau Afrique jeunesse (RAJ) and Progettomondo in the town hall of Digouèra. Also, it should be recalled, the general objective sought through this activity is to mobilize the population around a social commitment for the adoption of a behavior in favor of social cohesion. During this meeting, it was also specifically a question of taking stock of the social cohesion in the municipality of Banzon, of encouraging the commitment of the communities for a positive change in behavior with a view to a better to live together.
At the opening of the work, the representative of the President of the special delegation (PDS) of Djigouèra, Siaka Ouattara, sent his sincere thanks to the SOS Children Association and its partners for this initiative. In addition, he was delighted with the choice of his commune to host this meeting, which aims to allow participants to discuss several themes, among others, the role of actors involved in social cohesion, the typology of community conflicts and the resolution mechanisms.
According to the operations coordinator of the SOS Children Association, Babou Nagalo, his structure has been working for two years in the rural commune of Djigouèra in the field of social cohesion. According to him, this activity is a kind of capitalization that they are doing with the population in order to analyze a little with the entities in charge of conflict management, but also to see the typologies of conflicts and their resolutions. .
For 48 hours, participants were treated to a theatrical performance on social cohesion and a public conference on the themes of civics and responsible citizenship. They also had discussions in group work and in plenary focusing, among other things, on the major conflict dynamics within each community, the identification of opportunities to be strengthened against violent extremism and the endogenous mechanisms for resolving intra- and intercommunity.
This forum was well received by the beneficiary populations.
For the president of the Municipal Youth Council of Djigouèra, Adama Traoré, this framework allowed them to address topical issues related to social cohesion and endogenous conflict resolution. An opinion shared by Oumar Barro de Kuini who wishes for his part that these kinds of encounters continue.
After Djigouèra, the team of the SOS Children Association went to Kourouma in the north of the province of Kénédougou for another forum on the same themes. This Kourouma forum was held from May 30 to 31, 2023 for the benefit of community leaders from the rural commune of Kayan.
In the two respective localities where these fora took place, the participants, at the end of the work, formulated recommendations to invite all the components of the community leaders to the meetings which deal with themes relating to social cohesion but also and above all to initiate a meeting as part of the resolution of conflicts between herders and farmers.
Landry TRAORE / Orodara
