St Augustine launches new peace-building initiative
VICTORY PARK- Victory Park based institution tackles peace building and endorses better trained African leadership.
The St Augustine Africa Peace-building Institute (API) recently launched a 5-day training programme on developing civilian peace- building capacity in collaboration with Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy.
The programme ran until Friday, 27 June at St Augustine College of South Africa in Victory Park, Johannesburg.
API is a Pan-African and intensive peace-education initiative targeting peace-building practitioners. It has a 10 year history of providing a reflective learning environment for African peace practitioners to study in Africa and with Africans “bolstering solidarity” and to interact with others involved with peace-building work.
The institute envisions an alliance of people equipped to build peace throughout the African continent.
Its mission is to raise people equipped in conflict prevention, resolution, community building and reconciliation.
The five-day course develops civilian peacekeepers by increasing competencies and readiness to respond to the increased demand of expertise in peacekeeping, peace building and conflict management on the African continent and around the world in complex situations.
It emphasises the need for developing reflective and critical capacities of participants by drawing the attention to international human rights promotion and protection mechanisms and core values that inform and motivate peace-building activities such as human dignity and the common good and providing the legal and institutional frameworks that guide peace operations.
Dr Jimmy Juma, coordinator of St Augustine’s peace studies programme and one of its instructors, said participants will be provided with critical knowledge and skills in complex situations of peace building.
“We need skilled persons who can deal effectively with elections and governance, roles of civilians in peace operations, the protection of vulnerable groups, the re-integration of former fighters, and cross-cutting issues such as gender aspects in peace-building missions, conduct and cultural awareness and communication. The course also offers an opportunity to learn about human rights education and reporting techniques.
