Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa (CPIA) is an organisation working to contribute to conflict prevention efforts in Africa, including Zimbabwe. It was formed in Harare in 2001. The regional organisation was formed with the belief that if Africa is to find its legitimate place in the twenty-first century, Africans themselves, with the support of the international community, must identify ways of preventing conflicts and resolving them when they erupt. The sole objective in establishing the CPIA was to make practical contributions to such efforts.
Today the Centre upholds the same objective and works in close cooperation with the United Nations Information Centre, Harare, and other organisations that share its objectives. Its mission is to contribute towards the promotion of sustainable peace, stability and security in Africa through conflict prevention, resolution and management.
Activities
CPIA runs three major programmes, namely the Dialogue, Youth, and Emmanuel Erskine Programmes. Under the Dialogue Programme the Centre creates an environment that enables conflict prevention, resolution and management through dialogues in Africa; and in Zimbabwe the elimination of long-standing points of conflict. Activities under the Youth Programme have included sponsorship of peace poetry, peace and sporting activities, and child of peace art competitions. The General Emmanuel Erskine Research and Documentation Centre (GERDC) was established as a key programme with the aim of providing up to date information to researchers and scholars wishing to contribute to the goal of achieving sustainable peace and an opportunity to analyse, understand and propose peaceful solutions to problems which might lead to conflict or war.
The Centre holds a wealth of information on peacekeeping and conflict management including the United Nations documents in their original form detailing all peace missions and information from the Lessons-Learnt Unit of the UN department of Peace-Keeping Operations (DPKO). The Documentation Centre also has an archive of documents dating back from the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe and other African countries.
