ACORD and CCFD-Terre Solidaire commit to sustainable peace

ACORD and CCFD-Terre Solidaire launch joint newsletter

For ACORD and CCFD-Terre Solidaire, building sustainable peace and reconciliation, means working for at least 10 or 20 years on peaceful co-existence. It involves different issues ranging from joint natural resource management (land and water), identities (cultural, religious, and generational) and political governance (institutions, democracy and impartiality of the State). Having been partners since 1980 in 20 African countries, ACORD and CCFD-Terre Solidaire have now decided to support civil society in a sustainable manner, to address these challenges in four countries. In December 2012, the two organizations signed a two-year 2013-2014 agreement worth Euro 320,000 to kick start this unique programme. (This amount comes on top of Euro 2 million already committed annually for projects and partners in these countries).

Building on successful work in Chad, the priority in 2013 will be Central African Republic, then on South Sudan. Focus is on supporting civil society structuring, multi-stakeholder approaches, cross-border and regional action, towards enhanced livelihoods and peaceful co-existence for the populations. We call it a "Peace programme", but in reality we are talking about a vision and a commitment that we would like to share with other development actors and people caring for international solidarity. In fact it is not a "programme" in the traditional sense with a defined budget and workplan from the outset. Rather it is a compilation of actions, projects, studies, meetings, seminars and more typical programmes that together, would progressively respond to three challenges we have retained as axes for the long-term intervention.

Read the full newsletter here