Gorée Institute
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
Gorée Institut
1, Rue du jardin, GORÉE
B.P. 05 île de Gorée, Senegal
Tél.: (+221) 849 48 49
Fax: (+221) 822 54 76
Email: info@goreeinstitute.org
Website: http://www.goreeinstitute.org
Breyten Breytenbach, Executive Director, janafrika@attglobal.net
Doudou Dia, General Manager, doudou.dia@goreeinstitute.org
Description
The Gorée Institute is an independent, pan-African organization launched in 1992 by former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf. The institute was one of the consequences of the so-called “Dakar Meeting” between exiled ANC leaders and predominantly Afrikaans-speaking professionals from South Africa. The meeting took place in 1987 and initiated a prolonged dialogue process in South Africa, which eventually led to its democratic government in 1994.
The institute’s mission encompasses the promotion of peaceful, self-supporting and open societies in Africa through the elaboration of new paradigms, creational of people and institutional networks, the optimization of the continents “creative” human resources and financial support. This mission is carried out through partnerships with state and inter-state authorities, as well as with diverse members of civil society. Innovation, critical thinking and action-networking therefore make up its core values, expertise and activities.
The institute has three departments: the African Peace Activities (APA), which coordinates and executes the institute's programs; the Teral, responsible for the management of its physical infrastructure and accommodation facilities; and administration and finance.
The APA program has two components: The Forum component which entails regrouping all research, discussion and publishing activities; and, the Platform Component which includes all activities involving networking, the facilitation of political dialogue, peace promotion activities and exchanges of experiences. The APA program facilitates the search for new approaches to understanding and ending violent conflicts which bear a heavy burden on Africa's democratic practices and development projects. The activities further concentrate on the cultural and developmental dimensions of peace building and good governance without which long-term political and social stability are not feasible.
Another of the institute’s current programs, African Peace Constituency, aims to help build an alliance of West African civil society organizations engaged in peace building beyond national and cultural borders. Meanwhile, its Electoral Reform Program seeks to build on the good working relationships fostered between the electoral management bodies within the Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC countries, the AAEA, the SADC Parliamentary Forum and the EMBs in East and West Africa, as well as other African organizations and institutions focusing on democracy and electoral matters. The institute’s third current program, known as the Gorée Ndaje project, provides space for regional consultation on important issues through what the institute calls “ndaje”, meaning “forum”. The project attempts to enhance shared understanding on a variety of subjects and to make both the process and results available to the critical assessment of partners; research/action on Violence in Africa with the objective of holding dialogue forums to promote multidisciplinary exchanges on the implementation of new approaches to conflict management and prevention of violent conflicts; and, the Negotiating Peace project aims to strengthen the capacity of peace negotiators and the mediators and thus contribute effectively to the resolution of conflicts and, where possible, limit the proliferation of violence.
The institute’s programs and projects are led by program managers and highly qualified and motivated associate staff. Aside from the programs and projects, the Teral department enables the Institute’s facilities and services to be available to other organizations and companies for workshops, seminars and training. The activities of Teral are autonomous and are designed to lead the institution to self-sufficiency.
The institute’s international donor partners include Royal Dutch Embassy; Open Society Institute NY (OSI); Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA); Royal Danish Embassy of South Africa; Royal Norwegian Embassy of South Africa; Ford Foundation; UNESCO; Konrad Adenaur Foundation; International Institute for Education; German Ministry for Economic Cooperation, Westminster Foundation, and German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ).
Track Record
The Gorée Institute has had a number of achievements. In the area of peace dialogue, the Institute has held successful dialogue workshops and forums such as the Pro Democracy Summit 2 (1997), Consultation on the Legislative Electoral Processes in Bissau Guinea (2003–2004) and Nitnet (2001–2003) whose objectives were to host and coordinate a meeting for Nigerian opposition forces towards the holding of transparent and peaceful legislative competition in Bissau, Guinea and to build a training and information network for human rights organizations in Senegal respectively. All these sessions facilitated the concerted dialogue, strategic planning and training of the participants and developed declarations, action plans and material relevant to the objectives sought. These activities were supported by George Soros, the Ford Foundation, the German Embassy in Senegal, USAID and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
The institute has also organized two workshops, the “West African Network for Peace” WANEP (Accra) and the CONGAD with the support of UNESCO and in cooperation with the University of Gaston Berger of St. Louis. These workshops brought together experts, researchers and practitioners engaged in researching the causes and dynamics of violent conflicts. The intention was to introduce and encourage the use of peace-building strategies and mechanisms. This approach was designed to reinforce the impact of peace actions carried out by members of civil society particularly those carried out by youth and women's organizations.
In the area of elections and democracy, Gorée Institute facilitated the holding of meetings on electoral processes in Guinea (2005) with the purpose of reinforcing the democratization process that brought together political parties, civil society and government representatives. Its output was the definition of a joint platform for political dialogue involving all political forces in the country. The lack of violent backlash in the controversial 2005 elections could be as a result of the dialogue platform created then. The current electoral program has organized reflection workshops on the involvement of civil society in West African electoral reform and also developed publications on elections in West Africa and the formation of a network of West African Elections CSOs.
The institute’s resource mobilization and sustainability programs have similarly made great milestones through its community development projects and institutional building programs with the support of NOVIB, USAID, SIDA, OSI, Irish Aid, Westminster Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Oxfam.
The arts and culture program area organized Oral Literature and Peace-building activities carried out in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau. This project involved the collection and analysis of oral texts serving as educational tools for conflict management and prevention. Partners include University of Ouagadougou, KuSiMon Editora (Bissau), INEP (Bissau) and others. This is in addition to the Art printmaking workshop, music laboratory and the poetry caravan from Dakar to Timbuktu.
Partnership and Donors
The institute’s international donor partners include Royal Dutch Embassy; Open Society Institute NY (OSI); Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA); Royal Danish Embassy of South Africa; Royal Norwegian Embassy of South Africa; Ford Foundation; UNESCO; Konrad Adenaur Foundation; International Institute for Education; German Ministry for Economic Cooperation, Westminster Foundation, and German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ).
Challenges and Opportunities
Boosted by its 13 years of experience and enriched by the achievement of many activities and projects, the Gorée Institute is now repositioning itself to become more relevant in its interventions on a wider scope and to keep pace with the changes noted in the sub-region and the continent at large. The main commitment will be to ponder over the causes of conflicts in Africa, promote peace and participate in the creation of conditions conducive to sustainable peace.
The institute is concerned about keeping Africa in touch with ongoing developments in information technology and communications (ITC), including the setting up of shared learning sites and the creation of exchanges and cooperation with academic institutions worldwide.
