Acting Foreign Minister Una Kumba Thompson says as Liberia transitions from the stage of conflict management to the stage of conflict transformation, the women of Liberia are playing a more meaningful and constructive role in the peace building efforts of the country.

The Acting Foreign Minster spoke on Monday, September 30, 2013 when she formally opened a two-week training workshop on Conflict Resolution and Training taking place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Capitol Hill.

The event which runs from September 30, 2013 through October 11, 2013 is organized by the Angie Brooks International Center for Women’s Empowerment in collaboration with the United National Institute for Training and Research.

Performing the opening ceremony on behalf of Foreign Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, Minister Thompson remarked that conflict which is an integral component of human existence has had and continues to have both positive and negative outcomes and consequences on mankind.

“The term conflict, even though developed to connote negativity, is a natural concept. Conflict is a perceived divergence of interest between two or more forces, it is an integral component of human existence that is as old as mankind,” the Acting Minster remarked at the ceremony.

Minister Thompson observed that conflict can become more destructive when it takes on a form of violence, whether direct or structural.

Acknowledging participants at the start of the workshop, Minister Thompson admonished them to look at the concept of Conflict Resolution in a more focused way as they being the intensive training exercise.

Reflecting on the country’s ugly past, the Acting Foreign Minister recalled that Liberia which once experience one of the most cataclysmic civil wars in modern times has overturned the deadly past of decadence, thus moving on the trajectory of progressive development transitioning from the stage of conflict containment and management to conflict transformation.

While expressing gratitude to Liberian women for their pivotal role in bringing peace to the country, the Acting Foreign Minister added that the Angie Brooks Center is indeed a topnotch center with the pedigree of engineering the needed impact in the conflict resolution processes.

The Acting Minister then expressed hope that the two weeks training exercise will be meaningful and rewarding to the Participants as Liberia strives to sustain peace.