HISTORY OF PS&CRN

Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Network (PS&CRN) is an outcome of a two-year project funded by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) “Strengthening Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution in Sub-Saharan African Universities.”  The project was initiated on the premise that universities play an essential role in training the next generation of policymakers, academics, and also serve as important pillars of peace in the communities in which they are located. In Africa, many Sub-Saharan African universities struggle to provide quality education as growing student populations stretch available resources. It is against this background that USIP introduced the project to support African universities.  

 

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In a highly contested competition of several African universities, a collaborative project between the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS), Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (SCAR), George Mason University “Strengthening Graduate Education in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution in Northern Nigeria” was funded in late 2014.  The primary objective of the project was to strengthen peace and conflict resolution studies--through recruitment and training of instructors, curriculum updates, and the establishment of peace studies and conflict resolution networks to facilitate information sharing among the centers for peace studies in Nigerian universities.  The beneficiaries of the project are students, instructors, researchers, government, institutions, and local communities.  The added value of the project includes updating the peace and conflict studies curriculum, improving skills and capacity to drive experiential and reflective practice activities using Nigeria conflict contexts, and establishing a coordination platform.

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PS&CRN was established to continue to advance the goal of the project post-USIP funding.  It was formally registered on March 8, 2017, by the Corporate Affairs Commission (Reference #: CAC/IT/NO 95424) as a membership organization of centers of peace and conflict resolution in Nigerian tertiary institutions.  15 universities in Northern Nigeria initially make up the nucleus of the network. The membership has expanded to include other universities in the country. The objectives of PS&CRN are to (1) Foster linkages between academic centers of peace and conflict studies; (2) Serve as a platform for institutional and technical support to peace and conflict studies to respond proactively to evolving needs of the field; (3) Facilitate the exchange of research and analysis related to emerging social conflicts in Nigeria; (4) Engage in the exchange and construction of theory, best practices and systems of approach for managing and resolving conflict; (5) Build capacity and enhance graduate education in peace and conflict studies; and (6) Track and monitoring conflict dynamics in Nigeria. The activities of PSCRN include training, research, curriculum development, experiential education, monitoring, and evaluation.