On 21 April 2011 ACCORD hosted a workshop in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which brought together key stakeholders to discuss strategies for ensuring sustainable locally-owned peacebuilding initiatives in Sierra Leone.
The workshop was conducted as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between ACCORD and the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) on 30 April 2010 on the occasion of the Nation of Sierra Leone receiving ACCORD’s Africa Peace Award. The MoU seeks to contribute towards building capacity in areas related to successful peace consolidation in Sierra Leone. ACCORD has signed MoU’s with three other countries – Burundi, Liberia and Sudan (both North and South Sudanese Governments).
The workshop was organized in partnership with the Peacebuilding Secretariat in the Sierra Leone Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. It brought together 30 key stakeholders from the Government of Sierra Leone, Civil Society and the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL).
The peacebuilding workshop forms part of ACCORD’s broader vision to promote dialogue and sustainable, nationally-owned peacebuilding processes which is undertaken by its Peacebuilding Unit. The workshop sought to generate a common understanding of the current status of peacebuilding initiatives in the country, while assessing the path forward following the withdrawal of UNIPSIL from Sierra Leone.
ACCORD will publish a policy and practice brief outlining the key issues raised in the workshop with recommendations for furthering peacebuilding in Sierra Leone.
On 29 and 30 April 2010 ACCORD, in collaboration with the South African Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO), hosted a Seminar to Review the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (UN PBC). The seminar brought together key decision makers across governments, business and civil society in Africa, and was significant in making heard the key voices from the Continent on critical issues for consideration by the Commission in building sustainable peace. On 29 October 2010 the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution on the “Review of the Peacebuilding Architecture”. The same resolution was adopted simultaneously by the Security Council as Resolution 1947(2010). In a Press Statement released by DIRCO on 30 October 2010 related to the adoption of the above Resolutions, it was stated that “an invaluable contribution was also made by a high level seminar facilitated by ACCORD and held in Durban, South Africa with wide participation from countries on the agenda of the PBC and potential candidate countries, i.e. Burundi, Liberia, Sierra-Leone, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan”.
