On 24 September 2019, ACCORD’s Founder and Executive Director, Dr Vasu Gounden, participated in the 5th Roundtable Discussion on Building Strategic Partnerships for Sustaining Peace at the Regional Level in New York City, USA. The Roundtables are convened by the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation (DHF), the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and the International Peace Institute (IPI), to examine the engagement of the UN’s work within peacebuilding and to reflect on how to sustain peace, especially at the country and regional levels.
This particular Roundtable discussion was held as a side event during the United Nations (UN) General Assembly week. It was organized in partnership with the Organization of American States (OAS), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), and the Community of Democracies (CoD) to provide a platform for the Member States, UN representatives and civil society to discuss the challenges and strategies toward strengthening the partnership between the UN, regional organizations and civil society regional actors.
With the UN peacebuilding architecture under review in 2020, the Roundtable presented the opportunity for further reflection and the sharing of ideas on how there can be increased cooperation between the UN and regional organisations for peace initiatives and how to accelerate progress on SDG 16 and reinforce regional prevention strategies.
The themes raised during the Conference on the Role of Global and Regional Inter-Governmental Organisations and CSOs organized on 19-20 September, 2019 in Washington D.C. by GPPAC, together with the OAS, CoD and International IDEA were also brought forth in order to draw on conclusions in regards to ongoing policy and reform discussions at the UN, exploring ideas for reinforcing the important work undertaken at the regional level to advance sustaining peace and reflect on key challenges in establishing strategic and operational partnerships.
