As part of the 7th Edition of its African Forum of Territorial Managers and Training Institutes targeting the Local Government (FAMI VII), hosted by the African Local Government Academy (ALGA) of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa), ACCORD participated in a dialogue on ‘Promoting Peace and Preventing Conflict at the Subnational Level’. ACCORD joined the hybrid discussion, which took place on 25 November 2023, and discussed a number of different topics of particular relevance to local governments and the contemporary peace and security landscape.
ACCORD’s Programme Officer, Adam Randera, contributed to the discussions with a presentation on Peace and Security in the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. The discourse looked at the intersections between trade and conflict and the risks and opportunities for local governments. Randera also explored how conflict can inhibit a society’s ability to generate the economic resources needed for development, as well as how poorly managed trade and commodity prices can incite or prolong conflicts. He also demonstrated that local governments were uniquely positioned to ensure that trade in valuable commodities creates positive outcomes for a society, and how trade, and the use of trade revenues, could be used as a tool to disrupt destructive cycles of conflict. The dialogue also featured a contribution from Ms Zoubida Tahiri, a peacebuilding and mediation expert, who discussed the importance of mainstreaming gender in public policy and peacebuilding processes.
This dialogue was the latest in a long partnership between ACCORD and UCLG Africa, which during 2023, also included the launching of a three-year, comprehensive Training of Trainers programme. The continued engagement with these networks of locally elected officials is a key avenue through which ACCORD continues to enhance the roles of multidimensional stakeholders, such as local governments, towards resolving complex conflicts.
