Peacebuilding in Africa

Arena Africana 1:

Peacebuilding in Africa. Local and regional capacities for securing peace, reconstruction and development.

Date: Thursday 13 October 2005
Time: 8:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Location: De Balie, Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, Amsterdam


Keynote speaker: Dr Monica Kathina Juma
from SaferAfrica, a South African research NGO, and co-editor of ‘Eroding Local Capacity: International Humanitarian Action in Africa’
"The role of local capacity is fundamental for the African peace and reconstruction agenda, and its value can only be realized by conscious strategies aimed at building sustainable indigenous capacity, able to deal with all challenges relating to post-war situations. The opportunity presented by the current international momentum to assist regions like those of Sudan, Liberia and Somalia, during their critical phase of the peace building process, will be lost if it is not translated into sustainable local capacity upon which Africa’s regeneration can stand. What then is the way forward for African organizations at the community, regional and continental levels, that seek to contribute to post-conflict reconstruction efforts of the continent? The answer to this question manifests as a key challenge for the African Union, which has resolved to play a pivotal part in the continent's quest for enduring peace. With the international community, strategies that will maximize the potential of African partners by enhancing their capacity to secure sustainable reconstruction and enduring peace, need to be designed. The form and structure of those strategies will be explored within the framework of the emerging AU vision and policy on post-conflict reconstruction and development."
Referent: Alice Mungwa
from the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation/Civil Society and Diaspora Directorate in Africa of the African Union (CSSDCA/CIDO)
Referent: Dr Ba-Foday Suma
from ABC Development, an NGO based in Guinea concerned with the reintegration and rehabilitation of refugees and child soldiers, and community building in the Mano River region (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry)
Discussant: Dr Mansoob Murshed
Institute of Social Studies, Den Haag
Chairman: drs Willemijn Verkoren
Co-editor of ‘Postconflict Development: Meeting New Challenges’


Issues to be addressed
Conflict management and post-conflict development are the concerns of those directly involved in sustainable development at a local, national or sub-regional level in Africa. But nowadays the rest of the world is realizing that the collapse of state authority, the dislocation of entire populations and other aspects of the disruption of war are threats at a global level as well.

How will African governments and sub-regional organizations provide answers to the armed conflicts that ravage countries like Sudan, the DRC, Ivory Coast and their neighbours? What are the interests and the means of African alliances like the African Union, NEPAD, ECOWAS and SADC, and are these always in agreement with the interests and the actions of the better-resourced NATO, UN and other security and humanitarian agencies? How can the dynamics between international NGOs and local NGOs be improved in such a way as to ensure a more sustainable and ownership-oriented civil society and private investment?

Keeping and restoring peace and security, reacting to humanitarian emergency situations and peace- and capacity-building in (post)conflict situations are basic conditions for successful and sustainable development. But who will take the lead in these processes, and see them through to the end? What are the realities of post-conflict countries and regions, and how can development activities, aside from humanitarian action and stabilizing interventions in and after emergency situations, be effective? How viable is it to speak of postconflict situations when reality proves too often that the official end of war does not mean that armed conflicts, let alone the disruptions of war, have ceased to exist? Private-sector investment will not generally go to conflict zones for fear that capital will be destroyed, although certain sectors (including oil) may continue to invest even in a war zone. What recommendations can be made for development endeavours in conflict-affected areas? How will the Millennium Goals provide a framework to find regional and sub-regional but also local answers to these urgent matters?