The Executive Director of Voluntary Initiative, a local implementing partner for a non-governmental organisation, International Alert, in Zamfara State, Musa Umar, has called on the state government to create a sexual and gender-based violence support trust fund.

Mr Umar said this in an interview at the sideline of a conflict, justice and stability planning workshop organised by the NGO with support from UK International Development, on Monday in Kaduna.

The workshop, attended by top government officials from Zamfara and Kaduna states among other stakeholders, was aimed at discussing community-level conflict, justice and stability priorities.

It was also aimed at identifying where the community-level priorities align government policies at the local and state levels as well as the institutions to address them.

The event was to build relationships between community leaders, local government and state-level institutions.

Mr Umar lamented that SGBV had many survivors living without support.

He explained that the trust fund, if created, would enable survivors of SGBV to access services that would bring succour to their pains and ensure continued living without trauma.

Mr Umar equally lamented the delay in the justice system, among other bottlenecks, while advocating the local justice system in promoting stability, peace and peaceful coexistence.

He said, “When someone offends you and you decide to report to security agencies or take action in the legal way, there will be enmity. If we can adopt the local justice system where parties are called upon to talk and dialogue to embrace peace, it will go a long way,” he said.

Earlier, the Country Director of International Alert, Nigeria, Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, said the workshop was of multi-stakeholder efforts focused on planning priority around conflict, access to justice, GBV and Accountability.

He added that the NGO has been operating in Chikun and Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State and in Tsafe and Birnin Magaji LGAs of Zamfara State for the past one year.

Nyulaku-Bemshima also said the NGO had established community dialogue platforms to deal with the drivers of conflict and instability in all the locations.

He explained that the workshop was to have an alignment with the priorities at the community level, local government and state level.

“This is important because an uptake of these issues that were found out at the community level haven’t worked there in the past one year is important,” he said.

According to the country director, the choice of Kaduna and Zamfara states for the project was because they were most affected by conflicts in the North-West.

He said that the two states had been making several efforts in terms of dealing with the drivers of conflict.

“Kaduna has a Peace Commission, Zamfara has also been doing quite a lot in addressing issues of banditry,” Mr Nyulaku-Bemshima added.

He called for the prioritisation of the role of women in addressing some of the drivers of conflict and other stakeholders in achieving peace and stability in the country.

Also, the Executive Director of Global Peace Development, an implementing partner with International Alert, Esike Ebruke, said the workshop was part of the planning and structure design to ensure the project’s inclusivity in Kaduna State.

He stressed that the overall objective was to ensure stability, safety and security for every person irrespective of where he or she comes from.

The executive director stated, “When the justice system, the people and the traditional system work, society will be more stable.”

(NAN)