PRIO and the South African Embassy invite you to a seminar with Vasu Gounden and Kwezi Mngqibisa, both with extensive experience of security and conflict resolution in Africa.
Vasu Gounden will address the topic of Conflict Resolution in Africa: Lessons Learnt and Challenges.
Kwezi Mngqibisa will speak on South Africa’s Challenges and Successes vis-à-vis Political Developments in Africa.
On South African Human Rights Day (March 21) the South African Embassy in conjunction with the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) will host a seminar on contemporary developments on the African Continent.
Please register with seminar@prio.no if you want to take part in this seminar.
Vasu Gounden is the Founder and Executive Director of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). He is a mediator, trainer and researcher in the field of conflict resolution. Gounden has been involved in mediation work both in South Africa and on the Continent, including Somalia, working with former President Nelson Mandela in facilitating the role of civil society in the peace process in Burundi and serving as an advisor on strategy to former President Masire on the InterCongolese Dialogue Peace Process. Mr. Gounden also worked in preparing rebel groups for the negotiation process in Burundi, facilitated by the South African Government. In September 2005 Mr Gounden was the first member of an African NGO in the history of the United Nations Security Council to address the Council. Gounden has been elected by the World Economic Forum as one of their Global Leaders for Tomorrow (GLT).
Kwezi Mngqibisa is the manager of ACCORD’s Peace and Security Unit, which includes the Training for Peace (TfP) in African Programme and the African Civil-Military Co-ordination (CIMIC) Programme. His areas of interest are Collective Regional Security, Civilian Peacekeeping in general and Civil Military Co-operation in particular. His previous engagements include participation in Exercise Blue Crane as the Deputy Civilian Exercise Controller. Furthermore, through the peacekeeping programme, Mngqibisa is the standing resource person on Conflict Management and CIMIC at the Southern African Development Community Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre and the Kenya based Peace Support Training Centre. He has conducted Strategy Formulation Training for a number of government departments, Foreign Service Institute of South Africa and other role players such as the National Council for Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy of Burundi. He was one of the consultants commissioned by the Special Initiatives for Africa to participate in the Workshop on Peace and Conflicts in late June. He will be participating in the United Nations Standardised Generic Training Module Seminar sponsored by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operation in July.
