A capacity-building initiative carried out by the Foreign Ministries of Finland and South Africa.
On 17 October 2025, the Founder and Executive Director of ACCORD, Dr Vasu Gounden, conducted a virtual session on ‘the importance of designing a peace process’, as part of the youth peace mediator’s mentoring programme, a one-year capacity-building initiative carried out by the Foreign Ministries of Finland and South Africa. The programme brings together young peacebuilders from across the globe to be mentored by experienced peace mediators and practitioners through learning and discussion sessions.
The aim is to build a network of young peace mediators and provide them with practical tools for future use in the wider field of conflict resolution, peace negotiation and mediation. The project is implemented through in-person workshops in South Africa and Finland, study visits to the headquarters of the United Nations and the African Union, as well as online sessions to build the participants’ capacity in specific thematic areas in the field of peace mediation.
The joint programme provides an opportunity to develop a peace mediation partnership between Finland and South Africa and promote resolution UNSC 2250 on Youth Peace and Security. It also adds to the African Agenda 2063 that focuses on five priority areas for the youth, including governance, peace, and security.
The fifteen participants include representatives from South Africa, Finland, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Qatar, South Sudan, Türkiye, and Ukraine. Following the UN Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security, the programme covers 18-29-year-olds.
