Ahmed Abbas Ahmed was a member of the drafting committee of the Charter of North East Somalia (1991) and Fifth Congress of Somali Salvation Front (1992). He was Resource Person for the drafting committee of the transitional Charter of Puntland and consultant for Independent Federal Constitution Commission of Somalia. He was a member of the original WSP Somali program team in 1996 and is currently Interpeace Program Officer on the Democratisation Program of Puntland.

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Accord Issue 21: Somalia

Maxamed Daahir Afrax is a writer and literary scholar based in UK. He is the founder president of the Somali-speaking Writers Centre of International PEN and the founder-editor of HALABUUR, Journal of Somali Literature and Culture.

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Accord Issue 21: Somalia

Thomas Abraham is the UK and Ireland correspondent of The Hindu. He has reported on the Irish conflict as well as Sri Lanka and the Balkans for the last ten years.

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Accord Issue 8: Northern Ireland

Mareike Schomerus is a fellow at the London School of Economics' Development Studies Institute (DESTIN). She works on violent conflict, peacebuilding and human security and has written extensively on war and peace in Uganda and Sudan. Prior to and during the Juba talks, she conducted fieldwork with the Lord’s Resistance Army. Her research also includes the impact of Uganda’s conflict on Sudanese civilians.

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Accord Issue 11: Northern Uganda

Betty Acan Ogwaro is currently Eastern Equatoria's State Minister for Agriculture in Southern Sudan. During the Juba talks, she was the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly member for Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria State and a member of the Peace Secretariat, the administrative headquarters of the Juba negotiations.

Julian Thomas Hottinger works with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. He is a highly experienced mediator and has provided expert technical assistance to peace negotiations in conflict situations including Sudan, Indonesia and Uganda. He holds a PhD in Political Science and specialised as an International Conflict Mediator at the Canadian International Institute for Applied Negotiations [CIIAN] in Ottawa, Canada.

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Accord Issue 16: Engaging armed groups

Jan Egeland is Executive Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Associate Professor at the University of Stavanger. Mr Egeland was the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. He has substantial experience in the field of humanitarian relief and conflict resolution through the United Nations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, the Norwegian Government and NGOs.

Hizkias Assefa is an international peacebuilding practitioner and professor of Conflict Studies at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Working with Pax Christi, he played a mediating role in the lead up to and early part of the Juba talks. More recently he has been involved in mediation work in Senegal and Nigeria, and was a mediation expert for the African Union sponsored talks led by Kofi Annan to end post-election violence in Kenya.