ACCORD, in collaboration with Ukusa Kwami, a South African women-focused community based organisation, hosted an Introductory Conflict Management, from 22 May to 23 May 2023, in Kya Sands, Johannesburg. The training assisted stakeholders in building their basic skills in conflict prevention and peace building, as well as helped them understand the concept of community peace tables as a mechanism to build peace at a local level. The participants included women, community leaders, and representatives from the police services that engage with the Kya Sands informal settlement.
Other than developing skills in dialogue and mediation, one of the key outcomes of the training is that it strengthened the relationships of different stakeholder groups who have historically shared difficult working relationships. This training marks the first time that various community stakeholders came together to engage on the issues affecting the community of Kya Sands. Furthermore, the active engagement of stakeholders who held positions of authority, created a better sense of equality amongst the participants, and generated an environment of collaborative problem solving.
The training was a significant first step towards developing collaborative local dialogue and conflict mitigation efforts in the troubled area. The training is aligned to ACCORD’s strategic efforts to strengthen the role that multi-dimensional stakeholders play, in preventing, mitigating and resolving conflict.
