The Community of Practice is a participative action research project dedicated to the knowledge of African humanism for peace and development in harmony with the balance of nature within the framework of planetary eco-humanism.
It is the result of the Network’s cooperation with UNESCO’s Africa Department and the UNESCO Interdisciplinary Chair on Human Development and Peace Culture of the University of Florence.
In practice, the Community of Practice wishes to contribute to the development of the culture of peace around the four themes of the Action Plan for Peace in Luanda:
- Cultural Sources and Resources for Sustainable Peace in Africa;
- Natural resource management for conflict prevention and sustainable development;
- Young people, actors of change for peace and development;
- Actions to create a continental movement under the aegis of the African Union and UNESCO.
Our ambition is that this “Community of Practice” quickly becomes an operational tool and a concrete basis for discussion and sharing of the best ideas and experiences developed by the Network.
In a first experimental phase, the first institutions to participate in research are:
- The Transdisciplinary Chair “Human Development and Culture of Peace” of the University of Florence (Italy);
- The UNESCO Chair for the Culture of Peace, University of Cocody, Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire);
- University for Peace (UPEACE), (Costa Rica / Ethiopia);
- The International Center for Research and Documentation on African Languages and Traditions (CERDOTOLA), Yaoundé (Cameroon);
- The UNESCO Chair “Culture of Peace, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance”, University of Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo)
The first two projects integrated into the Community of Practice will be the Action Research Project on Endogenous Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa and the Pan-African Contest for Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Schools and Universities. These two projects are proposed by the University of Peace / Africa Program and the UNESCO Chair for the Culture of Peace at the University of Cocody, Abidjan.
The platform, which includes a space open to the public and another dedicated to researchers associated with the project, is currently under construction. We will of course keep you informed on this page and in our “Activities” section of its future development, which should end at the beginning of March 2014.