ACCORD Training for Peace (TfP): Train-the-Trainer Course

To meet the increased demand for training civilian peacekeepers, ACCORD is hosting a Train-the-Trainer course in conflict management for UN peacekeeping missions with a civil affairs component. The event takes place from 15-19 March 2010 at Protea Hotel Umhlanga Ridge, Durban.

The Train-the-Trainer course responds to the increasing demand for conflict management training by UN field missions in Africa. The course will host twenty-five participants from the Civil Affairs and Training Sections of six United Nations missions in Africa. The content will aim to give peacekeepers a consolidated understanding of the theoretical and practical dynamics for the constructive management of conflict, through the use of analysis, negotiation and mediation skills. Also, the training will serve to build the capacity of missions to design and implement their own in-house Conflict Management training and increase the pool of trained peacekeepers available to deliver training in the field.

“In the past eighteen years, ACCORD has trained more than fifteen thousand people in conflict resolution skills. We have worked with people across political divides, and in collaboration with the United Nation and the African Union”, says Gustavo de Carvalho, a Peacekeeping Analyst from ACCORD. “Conflicts have become more complex and ACCORD has seen the need to enhance the capacity of civilian peacekeepers to play a more active role in dealing with conflict in Africa,” says Mr. de Carvalho.

ACCORD - The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes - is a civil society initiative specialising in conflict prevention, resolution and management on the African continent. The Training for Peace (TfP) Programme in Africa, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, focuses on the civilian components of peacekeeping, conflict management and civil military co-ordination.

In 2009, the TfP Unit carried out successful conflict management training for the Civil Affairs Sections of the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI), the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), and African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID).