By Haruna Abdulrashid
Gombe State communities have been urged to try dialogue in order to avoid escalation of conflict, saying that failure of such will affect development of the state.
This was stated by United States Agency for International Development State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness, State2State Activity, Conflict Specialist, Mr Matthias Yake, during his presentation.
He further encouraged the use of dialogue saying that it will increase conflict sensitivity.
According to him, this could identify pull and push drivers of conflict and their impact on internal revenue generation and service delivery, especially in basic education, primary healthcare and WASH in the state.
He added that meeting would yield possible ways, recommendations for addressing such conflicts.
While making his own remarks, the Gombe State Team Lead of State2State, Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar, elaborated on the activities of S2S, and how USAID has been supporting Gombe State to improve government’s ability to plan and budget, raise revenues, increase responsiveness to citizens needs and priorities
“To managing conflict and overseeing service delivery in the health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene sectors,” he added.
Abubakar also urged the participants to avoid being bias in all their reports on USAID developmental work.
Speaking earlier during her opening remarks, the Local Governance Manager, Hajiya Zariyatu Abubakar-Hashidu, called on the participants to be more dedicated, stressing ways for conflict mitigation.
She urged societies to be in peace through dialogue emphasising that crisis bears an overwhelming negative impact on communities, calling for support for Persons With Disabilities.
Conflict resolution is a great step for developmental growth and societal balance.