This framework teaching model evolved from the curriculum development workshop ‘Developing Teaching Resources on the Nonviolent Transformation of Conflict’, held in response to requests from academicians and leaders of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) after visits by faculty and staff of the University for Peace (UPEACE) Africa Programme in 2002. The University of Natal’s Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies Programme hosted the workshop in Durban, South Africa, 27–31 October 2003. Its sponsors included the University for Peace, affiliated with the UN, and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). It was the first of a series of activities aimed at developing materials and an institutional network for peace and conflict studies programmes throughout Africa. The forty-three conference participants included scholars and
administrators from various disciplines representing seventeen African universities and relevant NGOs.