The Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, has been invited by the Embassy of Sweden in Pretoria to participate in an exploratory Security Sector Reform (SSR) meeting at the embassy on 5 March. The meeting is a pre-meeting to a bilateral seminar to be hosted by the Swedish National Defence College (SNDC) in Stockholm in June 2007.
On 1 March 2007, Cedric de Coning, a Research Fellow with ACCORD’s Peace Operations Unit, delivered a paper on “Peace Operations in Africa” at the Geneva Center for Security Policy’s European Training Course in Security Policy.
From 22 -23 February Vasu Gounden, the Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, participated in a scenarios workshop hosted by the South African Presidency.
The Angola Country Programme at ACCORD will be hosting a conflict management training for twenty community leadership representative in the province of Huambo from 13 - 15 February 2007. The objectives of the training are to provide community leaders with the necessary skills to resolve conflict at a community level, and to enhance their leadership skills.
The Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, has been invited to be the key note speaker at the 4th Annual Sub Saharan African Policy & Defence Relations Seminar, which will be held in Cape Town from the 5-8 February. The seminar is hosted by the British Ministry of Defence.
Between January and June 2006, ACCORD’s Training for Peace (TfP) Programme assisted the Peace Support Operations Division of the African Union (AU-PSOD) in formulating a project document entitled a ‘Draft Framework for the Civilian Dimensions of the African Standby Force (ASF)’.
On 27 and 28 February ACCORD Senior Researcher, Richard Kamidza, will participate in the “Africa Round Table on Investment in Africa” focusing on the role of South Africa’s corporates in host countries. Mr. Kamidza is expected to present a paper on “South Africa: A Willing Hegemony?”
On 26 February Vasu Gounden, the Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, has been invited to address the annual gathering of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Regional Technical Advisors for peace building. Every year the CRS’ peace building regional technical advisors meet to share experiences, to analyse trends in the field of peace building, to explore new approaches and tools, and to improve their own internal communication and collaboration.
ACCORD’s Angola Country Programme will be hosting an advanced conflict management training for civil society in the province of Huambo from 6 -10 February 2007. Participants attending the course have been selected from the provinces of Huambo, Bié, Huila, and Cuenene.
The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations has organised a strategy workshop with women’s constituencies from troop and police contributing countries. The workshop takes place from 7-9 February 2007 in Pretoria, South Africa.
The latest edition of International Peacekeeping: The Yearbook of International Peace Operations (Vol II, 2007, Koninklijke Brill N.V.) contains a chapter by Cedric de Coning, ACCORD Research Fellow, on ‘Civil-Military Coordination and UN Peacebuilding Operations’.
