ACCORD’s resource centre, based at our headquarters in Mount Edgecombe, houses a variety of resources that are of value to the study of peace, conflict resolution and Africa. We currently house approximately 7160 titles of books, journals, case studies, gazettes, magazines, newsletters, briefings, monographs, published papers , reports, reviews and unpublished papers. The organisation aims to develop this facility and the resources over time, so that upon the development of the Africa Peace Centre the organisation will be in possession of one of the largest collections of literature and resources on peace and conflict in Africa.

The resource centre is open to the public (by appointment), and although resources cannot be taken off the premises, there is space for conducting research, using ACCORD computers for internet research and to gain access to our electronic resources (such as the EBSO host web platform for accessing academic journals).

For more information please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Documentation Capacity Building

Under the Strong Peace partnership funded by the Swedish International Development Agency, a memorandum of understanding was signed by ACCORD, the Department of Peace and Conflict Research and the Nordic Africa Institute. The MoU defines five areas of collaboration, one of which is the development of documentation and library resources at ACCORD to contribute to ACCORD’s vision that the Africa Peace Centre (APC) will:

• “bridge the nexus between practice and theory and establish itself as a leading Centre of Excellence on the African continent with regard to capacity-building, research, knowledge production and documentation in the field of conflict resolution”
• “offer state-of-the-art, comprehensive library and documentation services”… “based on IT technology”

ACCORD is currently in the process of developing systems, procedures and enhancing human resource capacity in order to improve the recording of peace processes, conflict resolution and other peace and conflict related experiences in the field and capturing knowledge to support the organisation’s overall mission. If you would like further information on this project, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

ACCORD has a partnership with the Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR) at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. The overall objective of the partnership, which is funded by the Swedish International Development Agency, is to develop the capacity of both partners to contribute to the constructive resolution of conflicts on the African continent. By broadening ACCORD’s theoretical basis for conflict management, and by strengthening DPCR’s empirical understanding of conflict, the programme aims to level the fields of knowledge production, research and information capacity. A sub-project of partnerships relates to a pre-existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between ACCORD, DPCR and Nordic Africa Institute. The aim is to develop ACCORD’s capacity for documentation and library services with the professional advice and cooperation from the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). (The Nordic Africa Institute library was named the Library of the Year on 21 September 2006 at the Book and Library Fair in Gothenburg.)

Strong Peace Partnership with Uppsala University’s Department of Peace and Conflict Research.

The ‘Strong Peace’ partnership research covers three broad subject areas:

Peace Agreements

The Objective of this research area, and its sub-projects, is to examine under what conditions peace processes and peace agreements succeed or fail in terms of both the durability and the quality of peace.

Various ACCORD outputs and publications do relate to this research area as Peace Agreement research at ACCORD pre-dates the Strong Peace partnership. However, the study parameters have been amended in the context of the partnership and the focus is now on ‘strong peace’.

The Knowledge Production Department is currently developing an edited volume on Peace Agreements in Africa provisionally entitled: The Durability of Peace- A Study of Peace Agreements in Africa. This publication will be co-edited by ACCORD and partners at The Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. The volume focuses on twelve African country case studies and is authored by twelve African experts and academics. The volume is expected to be published in late 2011.

Theory and Practice of Conflict Resolution

In an African conflict resolution context, the objective of this research area and its sub-projects is to identify the conceptual basis and theoretical underpinnings for the evolving peace and security practice; to link the theory of conflict resolution to political practice.

There are a number of research questions being addressed in this research area. One of the current and ongoing areas of research under this research agenda addresses Natural Resources, the Environment and Conflict.

Two projects in this research area include developing an annotated ‘dictionary’ of the origin and logic of competing definitions of central concepts in conflict resolution, and studying the evolution of the practice of conflict resolution and its future visions.

Challenges to Post-war Peacebuilding

The objective of this research area and its sub-projects is to address dilemmas that arise with regard to security, democratization, governance and socio-economic development in post-war situations.

One example of a research project that has been undertaken under this research area is the research and development of a report on the causes, effects and management of electoral violence. This report can be downloaded from our publications page.

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The Knowledge Production Department produces five types of publications annually.

• The African Journal on Conflict Resolution
• Occasional Papers
• Conflict Trends
• Reports
• Policy and Practice Briefs

All ACCORD Publications can be downloaded for free and are produced to encourage the sharing of knowledge and best practices.

The research agenda for the Knowledge Production Department typically deals with conflict and peace-oriented issues relating to the practical work of and training programmes conducted by ACCORD and other practitioner organisations in conflict areas; and key conflict-related policy issues. The agenda is updated annually to accommodate a synergy between Knowledge Production and the Interventions Department (namely the Peacemaking, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Units).

The Knowledge Production Department has a three-year partnership with the University of Uppsala’s Department of Peace and Conflict Research, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). Under this partnership KPD undertakes various research projects. Please click here for more detail on the Strong Peace Partnership with Uppsala University.