By Moses Akuma Odims

On this International Day of Peace, observed under the United Nations theme “Invest in Peace – For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day,” the people of West Nile and the wider Great Lakes region have both a solemn responsibility and a unique opportunity.

Peace is not a distant ideal reserved for conference halls in New York or Geneva. It is built daily in the border towns of Arua, Yumbe, Koboko, Moyo, Adjumani, Nebbi, Zombo and along the corridors that connect Uganda with South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It is forged in the quiet determination of host communities who share scarce resources with refugees, and in the patient work of institutions that refuse to accept conflict as destiny. At the centre of this local architecture of peace stands the West Nile Development Association (WENDA).

For more than three decades, WENDA has demonstrated that sustainable peace is inseparable from coordinated regional action, inclusive governance, and a firm commitment to durable solutions for refugees and host communities alike.

As we mark this day, I argue that WENDA’s efforts must be strengthened, expanded, and recognised as a model for how crossborder relations can deliver harmony, trade, and genuine cultural diplomacy.

WENDA: Building Peace from the Ground Up Founded in 1993, WENDA unites local governments, the private sector, and civil society across the West Nile region of Uganda.

Its mandate is clear: to foster sustainable development, peace, and regional coordination. Over 31 years, it has coordinated initiatives spanning twelve local governments, one regional city, and two municipalities.

It has facilitated six peaceful regional Council leadership transitions and consistently placed peace education, reconciliation, and crossborder dialogue at the heart of its work. WENDA’s peacebuilding record is concrete.

It has curbed the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. It has implemented peace education programmes for youth, ex-combatants, and cultural leaders. It has convened the West Nile, Acholi and Lango Reconciliation and Forgiveness Convention and hosted sustained cross-border peace dialogues with South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It has advocated for the Implementation of the peace Agreement between defunct UNRF II and The Government of Uganda signed in 2002 in Yumbe.

These are not symbolic gestures; they are practical investments in the social fabric that prevents conflict from taking root. In a region that has known the trauma of rebellion, displacement, and porous borders, such work is transformative.

Peace education does more than teach values; it reshapes attitudes among the generation that will inherit the region. Cross-border dialogues do more than exchange views; they humanise the “other” and create channels for resolving disputes before they escalate into violence.

WENDA has understood that lasting peace begins with local ownership and regional solidarity. Durable Solutions for Refugees: From Hosting to Shared Prosperity West Nile has long been a place of refuge.

Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have found safety here. The challenge has never been merely humanitarian; it has been developmental and political.

How do we move from emergency response to durable solutions—voluntary return in safety and dignity, local integration, or resettlement—while ensuring that host communities are not left behind? WENDA has answered this question with institutional innovation.

Through the West Nile Regional Engagement Forum (WN-REF), developed in partnership with VNG International, local governments have strengthened coordination, advocacy, and accountability in refugee management.

Quarterly regional forums have localised the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, ensuring that national commitments are tested against local realities.

Multistakeholder dialogues between refugees, migrants, and host communities have been held with support from partners such as Cities Alliance. Financial inclusion efforts, including loans to host community beneficiaries under the UNCDF Tondeka Facility, have demonstrated that shared prosperity is possible.

These efforts matter because durable solutions cannot be imposed from above. They require local governments that understand the pressures on land, services, and social cohesion. They require platforms where refugees and hosts can speak as partners rather than as recipients and providers.

WENDA has created those platforms. On this International Day of Peace, we must call for their consolidation and expansion. Investing in peace means investing in the systems that allow displaced people to rebuild their lives without becoming a permanent responsibility on their neighbours.

The Case for Cross-Border Relations: Harmony, Trade, and Cultural Diplomacy Geography is destiny only if we allow it to be. West Nile sits at the junction of Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The same borders that have facilitated the movement of refugees and armed groups can, if managed wisely, become corridors of commerce, cultural exchange, and mutual security. WENDA’s leaders cross-border dialogues point the way.

First, harmony. Conflict in one country rapidly becomes insecurity in another. Joint peace initiatives, shared early-warning systems, and regular dialogue among local leaders on all sides of the border reduce the space in which spoilers operate.

When cultural leaders, youth, and women from neighbouring communities meet as equals, stereotypes erode and trust grows. Harmony is not the absence of difference; it is the presence of mechanisms that manage difference peacefully.

Second, trade. Open, regulated, and mutually beneficial cross-border trade is one of the strongest incentives for peace. When markets in Arua, Juba, and Aru and Ariwara in eastern Congo are linked by reliable roads, predictable customs procedures, and trusted commercial networks, communities develop a material stake in stability.

Traders become informal ambassadors of peace. WENDA’s focus on regional economic and trade growth is therefore not a distraction from peacebuilding; it is one of its most practical expressions.

Governments and development partners should prioritise infrastructure, trade facilitation, and private-sector partnerships that turn borders into bridges rather than barriers. That is why we welcome the European Union trade and commerce gateway connecting countries and its people along for peace and prosperity.

Third, international cultural diplomacy. The peoples of West Nile, Acholi, Lango, and neighbouring communities in South Sudan and the DRC share deep cultural affinities—languages, kinship ties, and traditions of hospitality.

Cultural exchanges, joint festivals, educational partnerships, and people-to-people programmes can deepen these affinities and create constituencies for peace that survive political turbulence. Cultural diplomacy is soft power in its most authentic form: it builds relationships that no memorandum of understanding can fully capture.

WENDA’s reconciliation conventions and cross-border dialogues already embody this spirit. They should be scaled into a sustained regional cultural diplomacy agenda.

A Call to Action on the International Day of Peace The 2026 theme— “Invest in Peace – For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day”—is an invitation to move beyond rhetoric. Investment requires resources, political will, and institutional continuity. I therefore urge the following:

1. Strengthen WENDA’s capacity and partnerships. National and international partners should deepen support for the West Nile Regional Engagement Forum and related peace and refugeemanagement platforms so that local governments can continue to translate national and global frameworks into local action.

2. Prioritise durable solutions that benefit both refugees and hosts. Financing, staffing, infrastructure, and inclusive urban policy for refugee-hosting local Governments must move from pledges to predictable support. Self-reliance and social cohesion are the twin pillars of any lasting solution.

3. Institutionalise cross-border peace, trade, and cultural mechanisms. Regular high-level and community-level dialogues, joint trade facilitation, and cultural exchange programmes should become permanent features of regional cooperation, not ad hoc responses to crisis.

4. Recognise local actors as everyday architects of peace. The United Nations theme rightly honours those who build peace from the ground up. WENDA and the communities of West Nile are such architects.

Their work deserves visibility, resources, and political backing. Peace in West Nile and across its borders will not be delivered by a single agreement or a single organisation. It will be the cumulative result of countless daily acts of coordination, dialogue, trade, and cultural respect.

WENDA has shown what is possible when local governments, civil society, and partners choose to invest in that patient, practical work. On this International Day of Peace, let us choose to invest further—so that harmony, shared prosperity, and cultural understanding become the lasting legacy of a region that has already given so much to the cause of refuge and reconciliation.

Opinion Writer Moses Akuma Odims is the Executive Secretary of WENDA - 21 September 2026