Cairo, Egypt - The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Cairo Center for Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping in Africa (CCCPA) launched their new project “Consolidating Peace, Security and Stability in Africa” on May 7, 2015. The project is made possible by the generous support of the Government of Japan. The project will run for one year, ending on March 31, 2016.

CCCPA has been supported by UNDP projects, funded by the Government of Japan, since 2008. The first phase of this cooperation focused on strengthening CCCPA’s institutional capabilities in the areas of training and building African capacities in conflict resolution, crisis management, peacemaking, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and border management. Based on the achievements made and lessons learnt so far, the new phase of cooperation aims to further enhance the capacities of national and regional actors in the areas of peacekeeping and peacebuilding, management of trans-boundary natural resources and preventing recruitment to terrorism. The expected project outputs are:

In his opening statement, CCCPA Director Ashraf Swelam thanked the Government of Japan for its continued support and acknowledged the excellent partnership with UNDP. Swelam also highlighted that the new phase of Egyptian-Japanese cooperation in Africa will cover the entire continent. 
 
Ambassador Sherif Refaat, Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for International and Regional Cooperation, congratulated CCCPA, the Government of Japan and UNDP for their excellent partnership and their past achievements. He noted that the new project is both very ambitious and urgently needed, especially now, when Egypt is elevating its commitment and contribution to peace and security in Africa. 
 
Ignacio Artaza, Director of UNPD Egypt, commended CCCPA’s recent contribution to the global policy debate on issues of peacekeeping and peacebuilding.