Through its Conflict Transformation Initiative and in seeking to mitigate violent conflict and insecurity, and supporting peace for the people of South Sudan, ACCORD hosted a Dialogue Forum in Malakal, Upper Nile State of South Sudan from the 11-13 April 2012. The forum brought together thirty eight participants representing government, civil society, youth organisations, women groups, traditional leaders, academia and United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) personnel. The forum was tailored to engage participants at grassroots level, while allowing for the dissemination of critical peace-building skills to the different levels (regional, sub-national and national).

ACCORD Trustee, H.E. Ambassador Billy Modise, has been awarded the Great Cross of the Order of Bernadro O'Higgins by the Government of Republic of Chile. The presentation will be made by the Ambassador of the Republic of Chile, H.E. Ambassador Franciso Marambio, at a reception to be hosted in Pretoria, South Africa, this evening. The Executive Director of ACCORD, Vasu Gounden, will be attending the ceremony.

ACCORD has met with a number of African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) officials at the Training for Peace in Africa (TfP) Programme's Annual General Meeting in March, to assess and highlight key issues and opportunities for collaboration between the various stakeholders towards further developing and strengthening the continental security architecture.

ACCORD is one of the leading institutions in the world working on civilian peacekeeping, having worked for the past seventeen years in strengthening the civilian capacities of the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), Regional Economic Communities (RECs)/Regional Mechanisms (RMs), and member states. ACCORD has also played an instrumental role in supporting the development of the civilian dimension of the African Standby Force (ASF), through direct support to the AU and RECs.

In October 2011 in Stockholm, ACCORD, in partnership with the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and Indevelop, a Stockholm-based consultancy group, facilitated a three week lecture series on issues relating to peace and security in Sub- Saharan Africa. These lectures form part of an ongoing five-phase training programme for particpants from African IGOs and NGOs, to strengthen the peace and security architecture in Africa - a key strategic objective of ACCORD's overall institutional mission.

South Africa has done exceptionally well, as a fledgling democracy, to inculcate values of tolerance and coexistence, thereby earning herself the popular title of "rainbow nation". To reflect on developments since 1994, ACCORD's Knowledge Production Department hosted an Internal Staff Seminar on 4 April 2012 with an internationally recognised academic Professor John Daniel, former Professor of Political Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

The 'International Training Programme on Peace and Security in Africa' resumed with phase four, training 27 participants selected from the various Regional Economic Communities in Africa. Following on from phase two, that took place in Uppsala Sweden in October 2011, participants once again met to further develop their change projects and expand their theoretical and practical knowledge on peace and security matters.

Angela Ndinga-Muvumba, Senior Research Fellow at ACCORD and Doctoral Candidate at the University of Uppsala's Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR), took part in the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation's 50th Anniversary Roundtable Event in Uppsala on 2 March 2012, alongside a high-profile panel including Martti Ahtisaari, Lakhdar Brahimi, Francis Deng and Jan Eliasson. Ndinga-Muvumba's discussant remarks focused on African conflicts and peacekeeping and highlighted the issue of regional arrangements between the UN and the African Union (AU) under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter.

Angela Ndinga-Muvumba, Senior Research Fellow at ACCORD and Doctoral Candidate at the University of Uppsala's Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR), took part in a conference on 'The African Union After Ten Years: Progress, Practice and Prospects for the Future', in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 20-21 February 2012. The conference was organised by the US State Department, in order to enhance U.S. engagement with the African Union through a deeper understanding of the African Union across the U.S. government. Ndinga-Muvumba's paper presentation was titled "South Africa and the African Union: The Dynamics of African Solidarity" and explored how South Africa's African agenda has evolved in its interaction with the AU.

The Training for Peace Programme (TfP) at ACCORD's Peacekeeping Unit, has been actively engaged in supporting the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Civil Affairs Division (CAD) capacity to implement its mandate.  Its relationship with UN peacekeeping operations can be dated several years ago, and has since been able to implement several projects in the areas of training, policy development and applied research.