On 1 November the Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden was a resource person at the “OECD/DAC Experts Meeting on Developing Practical Guidance on Armed Violence Reduction” in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, recently attended a regional meeting on armed violence and development in Kenya, under invitation from the Governments of Kenya and Switzerland and the United Nations Development Programme.
The Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, was invited to be a resource person at a “Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Governance” meeting between Sweden and South Africa. The meeting which was hosted by the Swedish National Defence College (SNDC) and the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Västerhaninge, Sweden, from 1-2 October.
On 21 September David Cortright, a research fellow and visiting scholar at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre visited ACCORD House. Mr. Cortright was in Durban to meet with, among others, Ela Gandhi, in relation with his new book entitled “Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism.”
The Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, visited Sweden, Finland and Norway between 30 August and 9 September. In all three countries Mr Gounden had a series of meetings with senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, as well as various civil society organizations and research institutes.
On Saturday, 25 August 2007, the recipient of the 2007 Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace, Ms Immaculée Ilibagiza, visited ACCORD House. Immaculée is the author of a book entitled ‘Left to Tell: Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust’.
As part of the partnership arrangement between ACCORD and the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, ACCORD is participating in Uppsala’s high-level programme on Conflict Resolution and Challenges to Successful Peace Building in Africa (Top Level Seminar on Peace and Security - TOPS).
On International Peace Day, 21 September 2007, ACCORD, in collaboration with Unischool Durban (which provides short training in computer and business skills) contributed some of its surplus IT equipment to the Ekhaya Multi Arts Centre based in Kwa-Mashu, Durban. Unischool agreed to contribute free computer training.
ACCORD Senior Researcher Karanja Mbugua attended the Implementing the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Southern Africa forum from 17-18 September at Kopanong Hotel at Benoni, Johannesburg.
The Founder and Executive Director, Vasu Gounden, was recently invited by the Embassy of Sweden in Pretoria to meet with the Swedish Co-chair of the Swedish-South Africa SSR Seminar, Ambassador Anders Oljelund, who is is currently the Swedish Ambassador for international cooperation against trafficking in human beings
The Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, was invited by the South African Department of Foreign Affairs to attend a roundtable discussion on the review of the first six months of South Africa’s membership of the United Nations Security Council, which was held on 3 August 2007 at The Union Buildings.
