Strong Peace Partnership

ACCORD has a partnership with the Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR) at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. The overall objective of the partnership, which is funded by the Swedish International Development Agency, is to develop the capacity of both partners to contribute to the constructive resolution of conflicts on the African continent. By broadening ACCORD’s theoretical basis for conflict management, and by strengthening DPCR’s empirical understanding of conflict, the programme aims to level the fields of knowledge production, research and information capacity. A sub-project of partnerships relates to a pre-existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between ACCORD, DPCR and Nordic Africa Institute. The aim is to develop ACCORD’s capacity for documentation and library services with the professional advice and cooperation from the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). (The Nordic Africa Institute library was named the Library of the Year on 21 September 2006 at the Book and Library Fair in Gothenburg.)

Strong Peace Partnership with Uppsala University’s Department of Peace and Conflict Research.

The ‘Strong Peace’ partnership research covers three broad subject areas:

Peace Agreements

The Objective of this research area, and its sub-projects, is to examine under what conditions peace processes and peace agreements succeed or fail in terms of both the durability and the quality of peace.

Various ACCORD outputs and publications do relate to this research area as Peace Agreement research at ACCORD pre-dates the Strong Peace partnership. However, the study parameters have been amended in the context of the partnership and the focus is now on ‘strong peace’.

The Knowledge Production Department is currently developing an edited volume on Peace Agreements in Africa provisionally entitled: The Durability of Peace- A Study of Peace Agreements in Africa. This publication will be co-edited by ACCORD and partners at The Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. The volume focuses on twelve African country case studies and is authored by twelve African experts and academics. The volume is expected to be published in late 2011.

Theory and Practice of Conflict Resolution

In an African conflict resolution context, the objective of this research area and its sub-projects is to identify the conceptual basis and theoretical underpinnings for the evolving peace and security practice; to link the theory of conflict resolution to political practice.

There are a number of research questions being addressed in this research area. One of the current and ongoing areas of research under this research agenda addresses Natural Resources, the Environment and Conflict.

Two projects in this research area include developing an annotated ‘dictionary’ of the origin and logic of competing definitions of central concepts in conflict resolution, and studying the evolution of the practice of conflict resolution and its future visions.

Challenges to Post-war Peacebuilding

The objective of this research area and its sub-projects is to address dilemmas that arise with regard to security, democratization, governance and socio-economic development in post-war situations.

One example of a research project that has been undertaken under this research area is the research and development of a report on the causes, effects and management of electoral violence. This report can be downloaded from our publications page.

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