After an intensive learning week in Togo, organized together with PMU, ODOS, and ADRA Togo, Miriam Mondragon, Capacity Development Advisor, reflects on how we can build resilience in our communities. With over fifty participants from ten countries in West Africa, strong networks for future collaboration were established.
Together with my colleague Julia Brandström, I recently returned from Togo, a country that fascinates with many challenges. Fresh in our minds is the learning week on Environment, Climate, Peace, and Resilience, which we had the privilege to organize in collaboration with PMU, ODOS, and ADRA Togo. Throughout the week, more than fifty participants from ten West African countries gathered to deepen their understanding of how we can build resilience in the communities and villages where we work.
Personally, it was an incredibly inspiring week. Over five days, we delved into crucial topics such as biodiversity, resilience, and the complex connections between environmental issues and conflicts. We also worked with SMR’s resilience framework—an easy-to-use tool that can be applied to manage both acute crises and long-term changes.
The interactive sessions with resilience expert Silva Ferretti and conflict researcher Dieudonné Kossi were highly appreciated. By discussing real-life examples, we also had the opportunity to share our own experiences and lessons learned, creating a dynamic and engaging learning environment.
The learning week provided excellent conditions for building networks for future collaborations. The resilience and environment networks Kenya4Resilience and the Togolese SECAAR gave us concrete examples from their work. Seeds for national resilience networks were planted among our partners in Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Mali, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and action plans were developed.
One of the participants, Samuel Asamoah from YMCA Ghana, recently reached out to us with the following message:
“Shortly after leaving the Togo conference, my colleague Nana and I replicated the Resilience workshop with fourteen of our YMCA volunteers. Together, we are raising more resilience champions!”
At SMC Faith in development, we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the results of the learning week unfold.
