By Ndzi Divine Njamsi, Rotary Peace Fellow and Positive Peace Activator

I am a peacebuilding professional from Cameroon with over eight years of field experience working on youth capacity building in peacebuilding, governance, and democracy. Back in November 2022 when I was a student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, as a Rotary Peace Fellow, our Program Officer shared an opportunity to get trained in Positive Peace – an in-person Positive Peace Activator Program for Rotary members, Peace Fellows, and other community peacebuilders in West and Central Africa.  I was very excited about the program because it would be an opportunity for me to acquire more skills in peacebuilding for my community, so I applied.

I took an interest in Positive Peace and the Activator training due to problems affecting peace in Cameroon – bad governance, hate speech in online spaces, tribalism and inter-communal conflicts, violent extremism, and, above all, the ongoing Anglophone crisis (a socio-political crisis in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon) plaguing the regions of Cameroon since November 2016 with more than 3000 dead and more than 5000 refugees in Nigeria (according to UNHCR). The concept of Positive Peace is not well-known in the civil society space of Cameroon or in Central Africa in general. That is why there is an urgent and rising need for an innovative way of fostering peacebuilding through the Positive Peace training, with trainees partnering with local associations and organizations to do the peace-building work.

The Rotary Positive Peace Activator Training in Lagos

By mid-December 2022, I received an email that I’d been selected for the Rotary Positive Peace Activator training program in early April 2023. I joined 49 other trainees from 12 West & Central African countries in Lagos, Nigeria. I was privileged to be among the 49 trainees (Rotarians, Rotaractors, Rotary Peace Fellows, and other stakeholders) – selected out of more than 450 applicants. The focus of this 20-hour, three-day learning opportunity was to reassert Rotary’s mission, vision, and peacebuilding work, combined with the Institute for Economics & Peace’s (IEP) Positive Peace framework. Together, looking at how trainees can make use of and improve upon Rotary’s network and capacity to prioritize its areas of focus to address societal needs. All this, of course, was done in a bid to effectively contribute towards enhancing peace and good in West and Central Africa. I was very satisfied with the content of the training they offered and their commitment to service!

Lessons Learned

Through the Positive Peace Activator Training program, I did not just have the opportunity to better understand the details around the concept of Positive Peace. I also had the opportunity to learn more about the eight Pillars of Positive Peace:

I learned that the eight pillars can be incorporated into my work in Cameroon, providing me with a blueprint for effective peacebuilding activities.  

I also learned about the other areas of Rotary International’s focus apart from Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention, and how they all connect to and contribute to Positive Peace. I retain that both Rotary and IEP are not only working in synergy for peacebuilding but also to promote sustainable development goals to make the world a safe haven.