Responding to Conflict-UK

RTC is a UK based peace resource organization and has been COPA's partner since COPA's inception in 1997. The initial membership of COPA was drawn from alumni of RTC's Working with Conflict course . RTC has financially supported COPA programmes and institutional development in addition to acting as COPA's grant holder for funds remitted from the UK .

With time, the partnership has evolved to include technical support in programme development and implementation. This has particularly been the case in COPA's Training of Trainers where RTC has been providing COPA with technical and expertise support.

Still in programmes, the Linking Practice and Policy Programme (LPP) which has been instrumental in linking different communities and organizing learning exchange visits is a joint undertaking of both COPA and RTC.

Both COPA and RTC have recently partnered to develop and implement the MA programme in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS) for peace practitioners. COPA is set to rollout the programme in 2008.

For more information on RTC, visit www.respond.org

Skillshare International

Our partnership dates back from 2003 when Skillshare supported COPA's programme implementation through the provision of a Development Worker. The partnership has further evolved to include grant holding for funds remitted from the UK . Skillshare has supported COPA's organizational and institutional development and key staff and board members have been beneficiaries of the Leadership Development Programme offered by Skillshare in South Africa .

In the recent past, Skillshare has provided another development worker to work in resource mobilization and funding.

For more information, visit www.skillshareinternational.org

Comic Relief

Comic Relief has been COPA's partner since 1995/96 when COPA was established. Comic Relief provided funds that set up the network, later the partnership evolved to include support for programme and organizational development.

Cordaid Regional Office in Nairobi

Cordaid has funded COPA core activities and programme work since 2003. The current fund has enabled COPA to start a pilot programme for peace education in high schools. The programme will be later rolled out to other COPA regions.

ACTION for Conflict Transformation

This is a global network of practitioners, whose aim is to work together to plan, co-ordinate and implement multi-faceted responses and programmes of conflict transformation. Members of this network have put together a book on conflict transformation known as ‘Conflict transformation, reflections of practitioners worldwide'.

COPA is Africa 's ACTION partner. Our Southern Africa office was initially housed by the network.

Peace Women Across the Globe (PWAG)

COPA partnered with the PWAG (a Geneva based global network of women who have been nominated through a civil society initiative for the Nobel Peace Prize) in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi to enhance a broad advocacy platform for women peace builders in Africa and globally inspired by the motto “Another World is Possible.” In teaming up together, the two organizations brought over 75 women from the five continents to join another 65,000 attendants. Of this number COPA was able to facilitate 18 African Women peace builders.

The PWAG trained participants in COPA's Advanced Conflict Transformation Course in media relations.

The Netherlands Institute in South Africa-NiZA

The need to train African practitioners in conflict transformation has been increasing over the years. This has particularly been the case in the Southern Africa region. To meet the increasing demand, in June 2005, COPA entered a partnership with NiZA to train her peace building cluster partners in Mozambique and Angola in conflict transformation. The NiZA partnership also involves the coordination of NiZA partners' projects such as the translation of the Working with Conflict book to Portuguese, Lobbying and Advocacy and the training of female Ex-combatants from Angola , Mozambique and Swaziland .

Peacejam Foundation-USA

Peacejam is an international youth movement working with Nobel Peace winners to inspire a new generation of peace makers. Its aim is to provide an infrastructure for community involvement, leadership for school age youth and to provide students with the tools necessary to make informed decisions in their own developing roles as community leaders. Peacejam was founded by Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff.

In 2004 and 2005, Peacejam and COPA partnered to hold youth conferences for schools in Kenya .

Others:

Peace and Development Network-Kenya (Peacenet)

Since COPA's inception, Peacenet and COPA have had joint activities especially in capacity building of Peacenet's membership at the community levels.

Oxfam GB-South Sudan

COPA has been instrumental in training South Sudan nationals in conflict transformation through Oxfam's South Sudan programme. The partnership has also resulted in the development of a training manual for trainers in conflict transformation and peace building for the programme. The partnership has also been instrumental in identifying Sudanese nationals to take part in various COPA trainings.

National Steering Committee

Since 2003, the National Steering Committee which basically is the link between the government and civil society agencies in Kenya has been instrumental in identifying senior government officials to take part in COPA's capacity building programme key among them security and law enforcement officials. Among those trained through this partnership is a former police spokesman as well as the Director of Police Operations in Kenya .