The second Somali Diaspora community conference opened in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda yesterday. The conference was jointly organized by AMISOM in conjunction with the African Centre for the constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) and the federal government of Somalia. The conference named "Diaspora Policy Consultation" focused on the affairs of Diaspora community, their role in the development and reconstruction and the Somalia government's Diaspora policy which aims to attract them back to work, live and invest in Somalia.The purpose of the meting, according to the organisers, was to explore ways in which the Diaspora can be mobilised and harnessed for the purpose of national reconciliation and development. Kigali was specifically chosen as a venue because of Rwanda's civil war and the enormous role its own Diaspora played and continues to play in rebuilding it.

The goal of the Training for Peace (TfP) in Africa Programme is to build sustainable African civilian and police peacekeeping capacities that are needed in order to implement multidimensional United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) peacekeeping mandates. The TfP Programme was launched in 1995 with the current phase ending in 2015. To further understand the impact of the Programme during this phase (2010-2015), an evaluation of the Programme was conducted and its findings, conclusions and recommendations were presented by the evaluation team and thereafter discussed by all the stakeholders who attended the IAB Meeting together with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The IAB meeting therefore provided an opportunity to engage with the evaluation team in commenting on the 'Building Blocks for Peace: An Evaluation of the Training for Peace in Africa Programme' report.

The International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC) is a training and research institution, focused on capacity building at strategic, operational and tactical levels for peace operations within the context of the African Peace and Security Architecture. As an organisation that shares similar objectives, ACCORD was invited to attend IPSTC's annual symposium for 2014, in Nairobi, Kenya.

ACCORD is firmly dedicated to the enhancement of peacebuilding in South Sudan. As Africa's newest countries decides on how to move the country forward, the debates of truth versus justice have become popular elements in society. Issues such as the benefits and limitations of truth commissions, special courts, international and local traditions and standards all come to the forefront and must be dealt with.

The Training for Peace (TfP) Programme at ACCORD participated at the 2014 Annual Challenges Forum. The Challenges Forum is a platform to discuss the strategic and dynamic exchange of experiences, ideas, best practices, and proposals to positively influence the peacekeeping practice and approaches through debate and research. The purpose of this year's Challenges Forum is to discuss the emergence of non-traditional threats in peacekeeping missions.

Ahead of the comprehensive review of the United Nations (UN) Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) scheduled for 2015, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and the Peace and Security Department of the African Union Commission (AUC) jointly organised a seminar on 27 and 28 October 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting, convened with the theme 'Regional perspectives on peacebuilding in Africa: An essential framework for effective post-conflict response', aimed to highlight the need for closer interaction between the PBC and peacebuilding actors in Africa, with particular reference to the AU and its mechanisms, as well as to regional economic communities (RECs) and civil society actors.

Good leadership is essential in the quest for durable peace. Through decades of service, Salim Ahmed Salim, former prime minister of Tanzania, former secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), peace negotiator and former member of the African Union's Panel of the Wise, exemplifies the best in ethical and visionary African leadership.

At the invitation of the African Union Commission's (AUC) Department for Political Affairs, ACCORD has participated in the Third Annual High Level Dialogue on 'Democracy, Human Rights and Governance in Africa: Trends, Challenges, Prospects and Opportunities' convened on 30 and 31 October 2014 in Dakar, Senegal, under the theme 'Silencing the guns: Strengthening governance to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts in Africa'. The retreat was held with the understanding that development failure and governance deficits lie at the heart of Africa's violent conflicts. It followed similar consultations focusing on youth and gender which aimed to gauge, together with the relevant constituencies, what needs to be done to silence the guns on the continent by 2020.

The Training for Peace in Africa (TfP) programme at ACCORD participated in the Regional Senior Mission Leaders (RSML) course that was held from 13 to 24 October 2014 in International Peace and Support Training Centre (IPSTC). The Senior Mission Leaders (SML) Course is aimed at preparing ccurrent and potential senior mission leaders in the role and responsibilities of senior leaders in complex peacekeeping operations to plan, prepare, manage and direct peacekeeping operations, in order to effectively fulfil their mandates. The regional course which took place in Nairobi Kenya, was designed to strengthen senior mission leadership in EASF and other regions within the framework of African Standby Force (ASF).

The latest Occasional Paper published by ACCORD makes connections between the vicious cycles of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) North and South Kivu provinces (the Kivus) and the intractable conflicts in the DRC. Written by Joyce Muraya and ACCORD's John Ahere, Perpetuation of instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: When the Kivus sneeze, Kinshasa catches a cold places the Kivus at the epicentre of the crisis in the DRC and persisting insecurity in the Great Lakes region as a whole.