The Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, has been appointed by the Government of South Africa to serve on the South African Council on International Relations (SACOIR). The Council will be officially launched in Pretoria today by the South African Minister of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
SACOIR has been established under the umbrella of DIRCO to serve as an avenue for South Africa’s non-State actors to interface with DIRCO on the development and implementation of South Africa’s foreign policy.
The appointment to serve on SACOIR is for three years and the Council will consist of twenty five members drawn from a wide spectrum of South African society including Civil Society; Academia; Business; Labour and national Departments. SACOIR will consist of members who have a proven and clear understanding of South Africa’s foreign policy and the manner in which its international relations are conducted.
SACOIR’s objectives will be to provide a platform for the generation of public debate on foreign policy; provide a consultative forum for the regular review of South Africa’s foreign policy; and to advise the Minister.
In 2012 Mr Gounden was Invited by the then South African Minister of Foreign Affairs to serve on a Task Team to review the National Development Plan towards 2030 for South Africa. In 1996 Gounden was one of two South Africans nominated by the South African Government to serve on the Commonwealth Secretary General’s Good Offices Forum to mediate in international conflicts. In the same year he was also appointed onto the government established Study Group on Future Challenges to South Africa’s Science and Technology and in 1995 was appointed onto the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Global Dialogue (now the Institute for Global Dialogue), established to promote South Africa’s international relations.
