ACCORD recently facilitated a Training of Trainers (ToT) Baseline Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya from 21 – 27 July 2024. The workshop forms part of ACCORD’s ToT programme, which seeks to enable organisations and their members to prevent, mitigate and respond to conflict in their local contexts across Africa.
The ToT programme consists of a baseline workshop which is followed by a period of online mentorship, teaching and practice-sharing sessions aimed at enhancing the participants’ technical skills to enable them to successfully design and implement trainings. Following this process and period, the programme will then conclude with an in-person case study workshop centred on the writing and use of case studies as teaching tools in conflict management.
The participants who underwent this 6-day training workshop, were selected out of more than 300 applicants; and are already practicing peacebuilders representing a variety of civil society organisations across Central, East and Southern Africa. The workshop aimed to enhance their skills in conflict management, training and facilitation to enable them to become lead trainers and to transfer these skills and knowledge to others. Several participants expressed that the training challenged their pre-existing views of conflict management training as its experiential approach compelled them to be fully immersed in the training content. In addition, the use of reflection as a core tool in the workshop encouraged critical thinking. Many expressed interest in incorporating the training methodology and process into their organisation’s conflict management training programmes.
The workshop, and overall ToT programme form part of ACCORD’s strategic objective to strengthen the role of national and local multidimensional stakeholders to deal with complex conflicts. Moreover, the participant demographics and learning processes align with ACCORD’s and the African Union’s objective to enhance the role of women and youth to prevent, mitigate and resolve complex conflicts in Africa.
