West Africa Workshop.
The workshop was about Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism Online which took place in Accra, Ghana September 7, 2022.
The meeting congregated APN alumni, among them Tendai Chari (University of Venda, South Africa), (Frederick Ogenga (Rongo University, Kenya), Jacinta Maweu (University of Nairobi, Kenya), Sivalie Mbayo (Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone), Noah Echa Atta (Federal University, Kashere, Nigeria), Amanda Coffie (Legon Centre for International Affairs, University of Ghana), and representatives from WANEP-West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (Beatrice Brew and Queeneth Tawo). It also included both media practitioners, scholars, and security personnel from KAIPTC (Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre)
BUILD UP, SAN FRANCISCO
The Center for Media, Democracy, Peace and Security Rongo University collaborated with Build Up to hold a one-day workshop with 10 selected students from Rongo University who were competitively recruited based on their social media online presence. The forum was an opening activity for a 5, 000 USD one-year pilot project (2020-2021) funded by Build Up called “Maskani-Adapting the Commons Methodology to Kenya” and the Knowledge Platform, Security and Rule of Law at the Hague, Netherlands.
The research project regards sentiment analysis of different ethnic groups in Kenya that seeks to monitor political extremism and includes polarization around issues such as violent extremism, religion, ethnicity, entertainment, and politics (Building Bridges Initiative and 2022 succession politics) among other variables through automation on social media and working with 10 selected student volunteers in five universities in Western Kenya to bring about a “common ground.” Out of a successful pilot program, Maskani has been given a workshop UNDER the scaling slot in design thinking in the upcoming 2020 KPSRL conference at The Hague in the Netherlands.
PARK UNIVERSITY: Regional Peace Journalism Conference
Funding by Social Science Research Council’s Africa Peacebuilding Network (Carnegie Corporation) to conduct the 2017 Regional Peace Journalism Workshop in East Africa that trained journalists and media practitioners from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Southern Sudan on peaceful reporting especially during elections.
Rongo University’s CMDPS also contributes articles to the Peace Journalist Magazine.