ACCORD has recently published the first edition of the ACCORD Peacebuilding Handbook. This Handbook aims to serve as a training tool and a self-study field guide for peacebuilding practitioners, and is designed to prove useful to a wide range of actors, including representatives of NGOs, government agencies, development partners, and intergovernmental organisations.

ACCORD's Peacebuilding Unit recently attended the 2013 Annual Conference for the Alliance for Peacebuilding, titled 'Innovation in Peacebuilding; breaking down silos and engaging civil society.' As the institutional home for leading peacebuilding institutions and professionals around the world, the Alliance for Peacebuilding's Annual Conference provided space for highly innovative creativity and collaboration with regards to concepts, strategies and programs informing local initiatives for peace.

The g7+ group of countries was formed with the objective of creating a mechanism to monitor, report and draw attention to the unique challenges faced by fragile states. The g7+ was created to work in concert with international actors, the private sector, civil society, the media, governments and the people across borders and regions to reform and reinvent a new paradigm for international engagement in peacebuilding and statebuilding.

ACCORD Pedacekeeping and Peacebuilding Advisor, Cedric de Coning, her recently published an article in Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, entitled "Understanding Peacebuilding as Essentially Local".

Civil society delegates attending the ACCORD-hosted GPPAC Southern Africa Network Meeting, held in Midrand, South Africa on 30 and 31 August 2012, concluded the meeting by agreeing on two conflict prevention priority areas to be included in the Network's annual plan for implementation during 2012/2013.

During April, the Peacebuilding Unit of ACCORD attended several meetings in relation to the g7+ and the New Deal for engagement in fragile states, in Washington D.C, United States. The g7+ group of fragile countries was formed with the objective to create a mechanism to monitor, report, and draw attention to the unique challenges faced by fragile states, and with the aim to reform and reinvent a new paradigm for international engagement. These meetings served as an opportunity for ACCORD to strengthen its engagement in the peacebuilding field, particularly in line with support that it provides to the g7+ Secretariat.

ACCORD has participated in the African Solidarity Initiative (ASI) planning meeting that was hosted by the African Union/ Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development (AU/PCRD) in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on 18 April 2013. The ASI is a new initiative spearheaded by the AU/PCRD aimed at mobilizing efforts and commitments in supporting post conflict reconstruction and development of African countries. Post conflict reconstruction and development in Africa is strategic in the work of ACCORD and the meeting provided the opportunity for ACCORD's contributions and engagements in strengthening policy approaches towards African countries emerging from conflicts.

South Africa will be hosting the fifth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) from the 26 to 27 March, 2013. Leading up to this event, there has been a series of forums that have preceded this conference, including the BRICS Academic Forum that took place in Durban from the 11-13 March, 2013. In the context of these events, the Peacebuilding Unit hosted a seminar on the 14-15 March 2013 at ACCORD House, Durban, South Africa.

ACCORD's Peacebuilding Unit has conducted a 4-day workshop on the implementation of the New Deal in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The New Deal is a new approach in which the international community engages with fragile states to enhance sustainable peacebuilding and statebuilding. The DRC pilots the implementation of the New Deal and the workshop's objectives were to enhance participants understanding of the process, its policies and implementations and also to enhance participants' skills sets on monitoring and evaluation in the implementation of the New Deal.

With the aim to strengthen partnerships and support the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s peacebuilding process, ACCORD's Peacebuilding Unit undertook a five-day consultation with key peacebuilding stakeholders. The DRC is one of the Unit's focus countries and the consultations did not only inform the Unit about the peacebuilding process in the DRC but also enhanced new partnerships and strengthened existing ones. The consultations were useful in shaping the Unit's current engagements with the DRC and confirmed a partnership with the DRC's Ministry of Planning for increased engagement of national and local actors in identifying strategies for a sustainable peacebuilding process. An activity is scheduled to take place in September 2012.