On 19-20 September 2019, ACCORD’s Founder and Executive Director Dr. Vasu Gounden attended the third Regional Inter-governmental Organisation (RIGO) conference on “Achieving Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: The Role of Global and Regional Intergovernmental Organizations and Civil Society Actors.” The conference was held in Washington, D.C. and hosted by the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), in collaboration with the Organization of American States International IDEA, and the Community of Democracies.
The conference gathered the leadership of key global and regional organizations as well as civil society actors to discuss key questions on policy frameworks, partnerships with regional organisations and the empowerment of civil society pertaining to the theme of Democracy, Peace and Sustainable Development in the Framework of SDG 16. The discussions also focused broadly on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The event hosted high level talks to build strategies at the highest level to support and promote the role of multilateralism as a key instrument for the improvement of democracy worldwide. The conference brought together senior representatives and experts from global and regional organizations, representatives of civil society organizations and independent experts to analyze existing mechanisms of interaction and to develop recommendations on how to improve cooperation among different stakeholders to promote democracy and development, improve conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts.
Dr. Gounden was a panelist for the Global and Regional Trends on Peace, Justice and Security session together with Ms Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, Chair, GPPAC and Co-founder FemLINKpacific as well as Ms Farrah D. Urrutia, Secretary for Multidimensional Security (OAS) Americas. The session aimed at highlighting the global and regional trends with regards to conflict and how it is affecting peace and security with the key discussion question being “Are we as a community of peacebuilders prepared to face the challenges posed by these trends?” The session also reviewed key policy frameworks on prevention of conflict and peacebuilding which addresses the emerging security scenarios across the world.
