West Africa Network for Peacebuilding

West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) is the largest regional peacebuilding group in West Africa. The focus on conflict resolution, mediation, and human rights. Founded in 1998 by Samuel Gbaydee Doe and Emmanuel Bombande the organization rose out of the various civil wars and inter-ethnic conflicts in Liberia, Ghana, and other West African countries. It currently has over 500 member organizations spread across the 15 countries represented by ECOWAS.

Following Sam Doe’s return to Ghana after completing his M.A. in Conflict Transformation at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding he worked with Ghanaian Emmanuel Bombande to found a peacebuilding organization for West Africa. Based on his background in working with trauma during the Second Liberian Civil War, and his work establishing youth dialogue organizations, and Bombande’s efforts with Hizkias Assefa at the Nairobi Peace Initiative in resolving the Kokomba-Nanumba conflict in northern Ghana, WANEP focused on both lessening existing conflicts and preventing future outbreaks. By directing efforts toward grassroots efforts the organizations helped local leaders and citizens resolve conflicts without outside intervention.

Samuel Gbaydee Doe served as the executive director of WANEP from its formation in 1998 until 2004. In 2004, then director of programs, Emmanuel Bombande was appointed executive director.

One of the more prominent programs of WANEP was the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET). An early predecessor to WIPNET was independently formed in the early 1990s to protest the 1st Liberian Civil War leading public marches and attending the peace talks. It was reformed under WANEP in 2002 under the leadership of future Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee to help organize the women of Liberia in mass, non-violent protests and other actions against the civil war. It is credited with urging Charles Taylor’s government and the Liberians for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) into a ceasefire and leading to the end of the conflict.

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