The NCP Consultative Meeting with the Regional Committee members of the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs was organized on November 4, 2022 at the Residence of Chief, representing Chief OUATTARA BAKOBANA, who represents the TCHOLOGO region in the Directorate of the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs. The Consultative meeting was chaired by the host Chief OUATTARA BAKOBANA. The meeting was attended by chiefs from five Cantons of FERKESSSEDOUGOU
Building and extending on the foundation of the previous project implemented with the support from DTI in 2021, the project aims to strengthen the capacities of youth and civil society stakeholders in the TCHOLOGO region to nurture resilience against violent extremism through CAPACITY BUILDING
The meeting brought together representatives of NCP, Regional representatives at the National Chamber of Kings and Chiefs in Cote d’Ivoire, chiefs from villages located in five Cantons, and members from the Regional Directorate of Youth. The host Chief OUATTARA BAKOBANA welcomed NCP and its partners and expressed his appreciation for the previous project, and reaffirmed his commitment to achieving much more with what he believes will be an excellent project as it works with youth and women in the region on “Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in Cote d’Ivoire.
In their opening remarks, the Secretary of the Chief’s cabinet requested from the NCP delegation the purpose of the visit. Mr. KONE Soungalo, NCP chief mobilizer, introduced the team and spoke about the objectives of the current interventions undertaken by NCP in the region. from the office of the Regional Prefecture Mr. KOUADIO Ange reaffirmed the urgency of the project is trying to address violent extremism in Tchologo, and hopefully all regions in Cote d’Ivoire. They reiterated the importance of the project and its participatory approaches, co-created with the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs, and most importantly, the beneficiaries on the ground. They also repeated their commitment to ensuring that the project receives the best support possible from the local communities.
Tony Karbo, NCP Director and head of the delegation, shared his appreciation for the partnership and its progress and emphasized the importance of the project for the NCP and DTI in Cote d’Ivoire. “The results of this project will go a long way to cement NCP’s partnership with DTI and help to Introduce NCP to other funding agencies in the United States. Dr. Karbo explained the purpose of the visit and handed over the presents to Chief OUATTARA BAKOBANA.
Mr. Jean Ndouffou listed the proposed project activities including:
• The Training of Trainers (ToT) in which 25 participants from the previous training will benefit from skills acquisition;
• The Radio Dialogues in which participants and citizens will participate in discussing the phenomenon of violent extremism in the Tchologo region; and,
• PCVE Training for members of the Directorate of the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs of Cote d’Ivoire.
Following the presentation of Jean Ndoffou chiefs from the Cantons recommended individuals from the previous training whom they believe will better represent their communities.
The stakeholders’ consultative meeting was held in Ferkessedougou on November 4, 2022. A total of twenty-five participants representing different organizations working in the Tchologo region took part in one day of deliberations. The Chief of the Canton of Ferkessedougou, offered the keynote address. Following up on the 2021 meeting, the objective of the consultative meeting with stakeholders was to identify gaps in interventions, discern lessons from them and identify possible opportunities for collaboration with other stakeholders working on PCVE interventions in the region. Of particular importance for the NCP project were the experiences of the partners in the Tchologo region in order to gather lessons from the work being done to improve the work of NCP, as well as its sustainability. As such, the meeting sought to identify what is being done in the area of PCVE in the TCHOLOGO region, to understand the nature and complexity of the context, what can be learned from the work being done, and finally, preferred strategies to enhance the work of NCP.
The NCP staff expressed their gratitude to Chief OUATTARA BAKOBANA and his delegation for the warm welcome and fruitful and beneficial exchanges on the upcoming project. After the meeting with the chiefs, NCP staff went to pay a courtesy call to the Regional Prefet of Tchologo Mr. Jean Pierre SORY in Ferkessedougou to introduce the NCP team and explain the proposed project’s objectives. Mr. SORY welcomed the team headed by NCP Director Dr. Tony Karbo. Dr. Karbo introduced his team and provided the objectives of the project in addition to explaining the support of DTI and its commitment to follow through on preventing and countering violent extremism in the region. Mr. SORY thanked Dr. KARBO and his team for choosing his region for the NCP intervention in the prevention and countering of violent extremism in Cote d’Ivoire. He explained that the Tchologo region is very vulnerable to this phenomenon and getting partners to work with the national government on the issue is very crucial. Mr. SORY made his personal commitment to participate in the upcoming activities and encouraged NCP to mobilize resources to build the capacity of the state and its security agencies, especially those on the frontlines in the fight to prevent violent extremism in Cote d’Ivoire.
