WACCE has undertaken capacity building activities to empower 180 local community actors to build resilience against violent extremism in various border communities in Northern Ghana. The project, “Building Resilient Communities Against Violent Extremism,” emerges as a proactive initiative to strengthen local capacity and enhance social cohesion in six (6) strategically chosen districts in the Upper West region of Ghana. The training involves education on Conflict Production and Resolution, Identity and Community as well as Preventing Violent Extremism and Leadership to enhance their ability to not only understand and identify early signs of vulnerabilities and planned attacks, but also to participate in addressing such vulnerabilities and averting planned attacks. The target locations in the six districts for this intervention include Hamile, Lambousie, Gwollu, Lawra, Wa and Wechiau, all in the Upper West region of Ghana.

This project is being funded under the Coastal States Stability Mechanism (CSSM) and implemented in partnership with TeenTalk Ghana, a local youth and women empowerment organization. CSSM is a joint initiative launched by the United States and Germany to strengthen stability in Northern Ghana and the coastal West African countries of Benin and Togo.

The training emphasized the importance of building local capacity to address local challenges including prolonged conflicts, youth unemployment and youth vulnerabilities including drugs. The Upper West region which borders Burkina Faso is one of the regions with significant levels of vulnerabilities that could be exploited by extremist groups. These include governance deficits, youth unemployment, pervasive use of drugs by youth, porous borders, smuggling and prolonged conflicts and land disputes.