Some 20 journalists and media practitioners in San Pedro took part in a workshop organised on 28 April 2015 by the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) on progress made by the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process in Cote d'Ivoire.



The theme of the workshop: the management of information for a peaceful environment -- the case of DDR was aimed at building the capacity of editors, radio announcers, news correspondents and journalists on the DDR question two months before the deadline for the enrolment of ex-combatants scheduled for July 2015.



The interim UNOCI Bureau chief in San Pedro, Roger Agode called on participants to be good and reliable communicators of the DDR process while Anne Dago, the communication officer of the DDR division of UNOCI told the media practitioners to use the workshop to raise questions that could help them accomplish their mission of informing the population.



Francesca Calvi Coorddinator of UNOCI's DDR office in San Pedro spoke of the logistic, technical and financial support UNOCI makes available to the national Authority for DDR (ADDR) in the San Pedro area in which a large number of ex-combatants have not yet been integrated in the DDR process.

Zouman Coulibaly of the ADDR regional bureau in San Pedro enlightened the workshop on the DDR stages including profiling of ex-combatants, disarmament, resocialisation and reintegration.



Before the close of the workshop which ended with a visit of the media people to projects run by well integrated ex-combatants, the media men and women made a pledge to go to where the information was, verify it and update their terminology so that henceforth they can become the real actors in the consolidation of social cohesion thanks to a better management of information.