‘Peace Council survives on donor funding’

Founder and President of the Frimpong-Manso Institute, Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso, has revealed that the National Peace Council, despite its critical role in conflict resolution and national stability, continues to struggle with inadequate state support and survives mainly on donor funding.

Speaking on OFF THE LENS on OnlineTimesGh, Prof. Frimpong-Manso expressed concern that successive governments have failed to adequately resource the Council, leaving it to depend on international partners like DANIDA and the British government for survival.

“How can you have such an important commission, not only the Peace Council but even the Small Arms Commission, depending on donor funding to survive? When we don’t get money from our international partners, we are not able to operate,” he lamented.

He disclosed that the Peace Council is actively involved in mediating conflicts across the country, including the Bawku crisis, the Dagbon conflict, and chieftaincy disputes in the Volta and Northern Regions, but struggles to operate effectively due to a lack of logistics, infrastructure, and budgetary allocations.

Prof. Frimpong-Manso further noted that members of the Council, as well as staff, work under difficult conditions, often with no offices of their own and little financial support beyond “peanuts for board meeting allowances, which don’t even come regularly.”

He urged Ghanaians, corporate bodies, and financial institutions to contribute to sustaining the Council’s work, stressing that peace is a prerequisite for business growth and national stability.

“If there is peace, businesses can thrive. Supposing you have a business in Bawku or Binduri, you might have closed it by now. So why don’t you support the Peace Council and allied institutions so we can broker peace for your businesses to survive?” he appealed.

Catch the full interview on OFF THE LENS, airing every Friday at 9 p.m. on OnlineTimesGh YouTube and Facebook.