The Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, was invited to be a resource person at an ‘Increase Peace through Mediation’ Ministerial Breakfast Meeting in New York, by the Government of Finland, who currently funds ACCORD’s Mediation Capacity Building Programme for the African Union. The Ministerial Breakfast Meeting was hosted by the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations on 20 September 2011. This is the second meeting to be held, following a first meeting that was held in 2010.
The meeting aimed to reflect on recent mediation experiences and provide insight to the UN Secretary-General as he develops guidance for more effective mediation. It also served to consider further steps to improve co-ordination and complementarity among various actors involved in mediation, as well as to strengthen the UN’s mediation capacity.
Gounden was asked to give a short presentation from the perspective of a ‘Track Two’ mediation actor on what should be taken into account when developing guidance for more effective mediation.
In July 2011 ACCORD’s Executive Director was a resource person at a retreat hosted by the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the UN, focusing on strengthening preventive diplomacy and mediation.
