On 11 July 2017 the Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Dr Vasu Gounden, attended the Joint Steering Committee Meeting of the African Union (AU) Mediation Support Capacity Project that was held in Helsinki, Finland. Among other things the meeting aimed to look at the current development and challenges related to mediation on the Continent, as well as to review the progress of the project as well as look at the year plan.
The African Union Mediation Support Capacity Project, currently in its 3rd phase, is a partnership between the ACCORD the AU, and the Finnish based Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), which aims to support the AU to strengthen its operational and technical capacity in peace mediation and peacebuilding to effectively intervene in conflicts and to promote peace. Dr Gounden is a CMI Board member, chaired by Finland’s Former President Martti Ahtisaari. Dr Gounden has worked with Former President Ahtisaari through various publication such as the Conversations with Ahtisaari Booklet.
