Advancing an African peacebuilding agenda

The conference debated the future of peacebuilding in Africa, drawing on the results of an ISS project on South Africa's role in post-conflict development.

Date: 2015-02-11 to 2015-02-12

Venue: Kievits Kroon , Pretoria

The conference discussed the themes that emerged from a two-year project of the Institute for Security Studies on enhancing South Africa's capacity for post-conflict development and peacebuilding in Africa.The conference aimed to contextualise the project’s findings within the debate on the future of peacebuilding in Africa.

Discussions covered the effectiveness of peacebuilding, and how it can be improved through a better understanding of what the concept means, and through basing policy on evidence about what works. The conference also looked at ways in which South-South cooperation could contribute to peacebuilding.

South Africa’s experience as a peacebuilding actor was discussed along with innovative approaches that could make peacebuilding more effective. For example, the India, Brazil and South Africa Fund means that projects can be taken on that traditional donors would otherwise not consider. Although the IBSA Fund is small, it has had a great impact in its recipient countries. Another innovative solution is the inclusion of the African private sector in peacebuilding. In South Africa, the private sector has a vested interest in the continent and business operations in a number of African states.

The conference debated how to improve partnerships between the international and regional organisations dealing with peacebuilding. For example, the African Solidarity Initiative is one way to revive the continent’s peacebuilding efforts. The UN’s upcoming 2015 peacebuilding review also provides an opportunity for a larger ‘African voice’ to be heard.

On South-South peacebuilding cooperation, participants noted the high expectations currently on countries in the ‘South’ to share the burden of global development. South-South cooperation in this field is still new, and future areas of collaboration were discussed. New initiatives were considered, such as those by the Egyptian Agency for Development Partnerships or the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy in Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

The full conference report is available here.