Under its African Peacebuilding Co-ordination Programme (APCP), ACCORD is holding a Joint Peacebuilding Training and Study Tour in Durban and Johannesburg between 22 August and 2 September 2011. The training event will bring together high-level peacebuilding stakeholders from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Sudan and South Sudan to share their experiences and gain new insights into best practices and lessons learnt regarding the topic of “Elections, Governance and Conflict”.
The two-week training event, which is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, brings together 16 participants in an interactive learning and group work environment that allows for fruitful discussion and the exchange of professional knowledge. Furthermore, the participants will visit several South African institutions relevant to the focus of the Study Tour to provide a practical perspective and enhance participants’ knowledge of peacebuilding in the specific context of South Africa.
The Joint Training and Study Tour allows participants to increase their understanding of peacebuilding theory and practice in Africa by highlighting the processes and institutions needed for its success. The perspectives of peacebuilding actors from the five participating countries will bring a focus to common challenges faced in peacebuilding efforts and emphasise the need for coherence and coordination in developing strategies to meet these challenges. This provides an opportunity to learn from the experiences made in other countries and enable participants to better understand the importance of their own role in the overall consolidation of peace, thus enhancing the future work of the participants and the institutions they represent.
