What’s Working in Africa: The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Where Evidence Meets Conflict Resolution: Learning from ACCORD’s Approach to Change
Across Africa, evidence-informed decision-making is increasingly recognised as essential to addressing complex development, governance, peace and security challenges. But producing evidence is only one part of the equation. The more difficult, and most likely more important, question is how evidence is translated into knowledge that decision-makers can use, in contexts where political realities, lived experience, institutional interests and uncertainty all shape decisions.
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) offers an interesting example of what this can look like in practice.
For more than three decades, ACCORD has worked to promote dialogue and constructive approaches to conflict prevention, management and resolution across Africa. Its work sits at the intersection of research, policy, practice and diplomacy, with a particular emphasis on generating, documenting and sharing knowledge that can contribute to better responses to conflict and complex peace and security challenges.
One of the most valuable lessons from ACCORD is its deliberate effort to make evidence useful beyond the research community; essentially evidence that is designed to travel. Its publication portfolio includes research articles and analysis, policy and practice briefs, reports, occasional papers, the African Journal on Conflict Resolution, Conflict Trends and other knowledge products. These formats serve different audiences and purposes- from researchers and practitioners to policymakers and institutions involved in peacebuilding and governance.
ACCORD’s Policy & Practice Briefs, for example, are explicitly designed to provide “succinct, rigorous and accessible” recommendations to policymakers and practitioners. The briefs draw on field research or thematic events, with analysis underpinned by research, academic theory and methods.
This is an important distinction for the evidence community: evidence use requires more than making research available. It requires thinking about how evidence will be encountered, understood and applied by the people who need it.
ACCORD’s work also demonstrates the value of connecting different forms of knowledge. Peace and security challenges rarely lend themselves to a single study, dataset or methodological approach. They require an understanding of political context, institutional dynamics, historical experience, community perspectives and lessons from practice. ACCORD’s publications and programmes bring together research, policy and practitioner perspectives to explore these complexities.
One of ACCORD’s strategic objectives for 2022–2026 is to contribute evidence-based analysis, policy support and knowledge to responses to complex conflicts. Its broader objectives include generating and sharing knowledge, developing individual and institutional capacity, and assisting with the development and implementation of policies and frameworks that support peaceful responses to conflict. This reflects a broader shift in how we should think about the evidence journey. Organisations such as ACCORD demonstrate how an evidence organisation can position itself across several parts of this journey rather than operating solely as a producer of research.
Context matters and evidence needs to be interpreted alongside local knowledge, institutional realities, political incentives and the experiences of the people affected. Evidence-informed decision-making is therefore not evidence imported into policy. It is evidence interpreted and negotiated within context.
ACCORD’s experience reinforces an important idea for Africa’s evidence movement: the future of evidence-informed decision-making lies not only in producing better evidence, but in building stronger systems around its use. ACCORD is therefore more than an organisation to follow for its research on peace and security. It is a useful case study in how an African institution can connect knowledge production, capacity strengthening, policy engagement, dialogue and practice around complex societal challenges.
Explore ACCORD’s research, reports and policy & practice briefs: ACCORD website | ACCORD reports | ACCORD Policy & Practice Briefs
