On 06 April 2017 ACCORD’s Founder and Executive Director, Advocate Vasu Gounden, and the Royal Norwegian Ambassador to South Africa, H.E. Ambassador Trine Skymoen, signed a new grant agreement between ACCORD and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The new grant agreement will support ACCORD’s 2017-2021 strategy of Mitigating conflict towards sustainable peace, security and development in Africa. The Royal Norwegian Government is one of ACCORD’s key donors, having provided grant support to ACCORD since 1995.
In addition the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also funds the Training for Peace Programme, which aims at improving the civilian capacity of African states, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) / Regional Mechanisms (RMs), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to prepare, plan, manage and monitor multi-dimensional peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations in Africa. The TfP Programme is a partnership between:
- ACCORD in Durban;
- The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria; and
- The Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI) in Oslo.
On 24 March 2017 the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria hosted a presentation by Advocate Gounden to the European Union Ambassadors accredited to South Africa on the Complexity and Convergence of Conflict in Africa.
