On 14 May 2019, ACCORD’s Founder and Executive Director Dr. Vasu Gounden was a panellist at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Forum on Peace and Development. SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, arms control and disarmament. SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations based on open sources to policy makers, media and the public interest.
The forum is held annually and the theme for 2019 was “From crisis response to peacebuilding: Achieving synergies”. The forum provided the opportunity for a dialogue focused event which brought together high level experts from the peace and development sector in a series of plenary sessions, workshops and presentations. Dr. Gounden presented during the High-Level Session entitled; “Towards a normative framework for Inclusive and Effective Peace Processes”. The session included Gunnar Aldén, Director, Deputy Head Department for Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs MFA and Dr Sima Samar, Chair, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Council. Dr. Gounden took the opportunity to address the panel on the “Principles for inclusive peace and sustainable peace”, stating that a contribution to sustainable peace cannot be achieved by a short term strategy. Dr Gounden went on further to state that disrupting structural causes of conflict, an example being apartheid, may result in negative trends such as rising unemployment, poverty & inequality. This may be a necessary phase for generating sustainable peace for future generations.
On 16 May 2019 Mr Kwezi Mngqibisa, ACCORD’s General Manager: Political and Policy Advisor, participated as a respondent to the 16th Session on the impact of climate change. Mr Mngqibisa addressed the session on the topic of “Climate change, peacebuilding and sustaining peace”. The roundtable discussion focused on the impact of climate change on multilateral peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts and how climate change challenges the execution of a mission’s mandate.
