The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support a twenty-four month postdoctoral research fellowship for Dr. Chudi H. Okafor to work with Dr. Daniel Obikeze at the University of Nigeria, in Enugu State, Nigeria.
This study will examine the nature and role of indigenous conflict resolution strategies and practices concerning natural resource management in Nigerian society. It will provide a framework for examining dimensions of land conflict. Nigerians face numerous critical decisions that revolve around the distribution of limited resources and the development of appropriate methods for resolving disputes that emerge. They must also decide how to ensure that limited resources are provided efficiently and equitably. Within this context, Nigeria needs conflict resolution processes that commit parties to change, reduce resistance to change, and allow creative solutions to be implemented. For this to happen, the parties involved must share ideas about who and what is responsible for the conflict, type of conflict, dimensions of conflict, and resources, values and experiences for resolution processes. In this study, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and case studies will be used to assess strategies, practices and techniques used in indigenous land conflict resolution. The study represents an effort to combine qualitative, comparative and quantitative research methodologies in understanding indigenous social conflict transformation in order to provide a knowledge base on which to design and implement programs for conflict transformation.
Dr. Dan Obikeze is the director of the Center for Indigenous Knowledge on Population Resources and Environmental Management (CIKPREM) at the University of Nigeria. Dr. Obikeze and members of CIKPREM have been involved in multiplying the capacity for preventive efforts in conflict management/resolution. CIKPREM's interest in agricultural programs in Africa has a special ability to contribute to food production, land, and natural resource management in Africa, as well as to foster conditions that prevent violence and destruction.
