CONFLICT RESOLUTION TOPS NYERERE PEACE CENTRE PRIORITIES

BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

Conflict resolution will top major actions to be undertaken by the revived Nyerere Centre for Peace Research.

With the region not spared by political crisis, the Arusha-based facility will seek causative factors and ways to curb them.

Beginning this month, the centre will commence training programmes on peace mediation targeting opinion leaders in the region.

Top among will be understanding the causative factors behind the serious conflicts afflicting the East African region.

The trainees will be made to understand the challenges in mediation and resolution of conflicts.

The Nyerere Centre for Peace Research (NCPR), is an innovative collaboration between the East African Community (EAC) and two universities in the US.

These are Arcadia University through its International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program. The other is the American Graduate School for International Relations and Diplomacy.

The objective of the Centre is to provide the EAC policy process with timely, relevant and empirical research information as well as capacity-building training.

The training is aimed to enhance peace and security, political affairs and international relations towards EAC integration.

According to a dispatch from the EAC secretariat, the conflict resolution training will take place from June 19th to 23rd this year.

During the training stint, participants will be assisted to develop conflict resolution skills as applied to complex organizational dynamics and institutional politics.

The second phase of training this year will focus on Leadership and Peacebuilding slated for June 26th to 30th during which the participants would be made to understand models of peacebuilding.

The participants targeted for training are professions drawn from public, civil society, research and academic institutions from the seven EAC partner states.

The centre, named after Tanzania's founding father Mwalimu Nyerere, was revived early this year after being dormant for about ten years.

The centre will engage in policy research and analysis as well as  training and support to decision makers like the civil society organizations (CSOs).

The EAC will be supported to build capacity and promote the peaceful settlement of the conflict in the seven-member bloc.