ACCORD seeks to strengthen the role of multi-dimensional stakeholders to deal with complex conflicts across Africa at a local level. To this end ACCORD conducted a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop for women and youth peace practitioners.
The participants, hailing from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, The Gambia, Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Ghana and South Africa, were convened in Johannesburg, South Africa from 4 – 8 April 2022. These participants were selected from a cohort of previous ACCORD online Conflict Management trainees. The workshop was led by co-trainers Philip Visser, ACCORD’s Manager of Applied Knowledge and Learning, and René Ngwenya, an independent training & coaching professional. The ToT focused on strengthening the participants’ skills in conflict management and peacebuilding, while coaching them on the art of facilitation, thereby enabling them to transfer knowledge as trainers themselves. Following, the virtual interactions during the COVID-19 travel and lockdown restrictions, this workshop allowed for the trainees to finally convene in-person. This human contact and face-to-face interaction created an environment conducive for the cross-sharing of knowledge and experience and made way for a more enriched discussion on how best to train in particular environments.
ACCORD understands that the complexities of conflicts in Africa and the challenges faced by intergovernmental agencies to intervene in internal conflicts, calls for the inclusion of multiple and diverse responders to conflict, particularly those at local and national levels. This workshop, therefore, sought to build the capacity of ACCORD former trainees to become trainers themselves by providing them with the skills and knowledge to conduct their own workshops. This experience will better enable them to train their own wide range of stakeholders and networks, thus strengthening existing capacities for managing conflict and building peace at a local level.
This ToT workshop is the first event in a broader ToT programme that will be followed with dedicated programme of activities under ACCORD’s Pillar 2 of the 2022-2026 strategy. The intention of the initiative is to enable ACCORD’s trainees to co-train Conflict Management Trainings with ACCORD, while receiving one-on-one coaching and mentoring in training programmes’ design and implementation. The comprehensive ToT programme will support the participants on their journey to becoming accredited as ACCORD trainers.
