The Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA)

The Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA) is a membership organization striving towards building the capacity of its members and providing support to existing service providers in Africa, with the aim of achieving sustainable peace in the continent. COPA’s vision is to see a sustainable culture of peace taking root in Africa in which divergent views and interests coexist in a manner that reinforces a common good; and a continent that acknowledges and solves its problems, and contributes towards global solutions.

To achieve this, COPA is working to redress the conflict situation in Africa through engagement with conflict and transforming it in positive ways, by cultivating African approaches that are informed by the lifestyles, traditions and cultures of the people living in Africa.

Continental Conflict Transformation Course 4 February 2001 – 8 March 2001

COPA will be holding a 5 week training workshop from 4 February 2002 to 8 March 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. This workshop will cover diverse aspects of conflict transformation and peace building, and is aimed at capacity building for people working in conflict transformation, development, human rights and related fields on the African continent.

The purpose of this course is to assist those working in these fields to:

Identify the origins and causes of new and ongoing conflicts in various parts of Africa and to look specifically at the current conflicts and its impact on the continent and Internationally.
Examine the causes of these conflicts in order to understand more clearly the dynamics of the various factors and forces, and the relationship between peace and development.
Support and strengthen skills for facilitating dialogue, including communication and facilitation skills, negotiation, mediation and arbitration.
Explore ways of providing support between practitioners and policy makers active in the field of Conflict Transformation.
Address the need to train other people working for development, human rights and reconciliation in methods of transforming and preventing violence.
Explore further strategies for violence reduction and peace-building.
For more information on the Coalition for Peace in Africa, membership of the Coalition and the Continental Course please contact

Michael E. Muragu, COPA Interim Coordinator, P.O. Box 13265, 00100, Nairobi GPO, Kenya, Tel: 254-2-577558, Fax: 254-2-577557 E-mail: [email protected]

or Genni Blunden, Transformation Education Africa, P.O. Box 16754, Lyttelton, 0140 South Africa, Tel & Fax: + 27 12 664 8380, E-mail: [email protected]