Background

As digital technologies continue to reshape the global peacebuilding landscape, new possibilities and challenges keep emerging. Some limitations relate to epistemic injustices and blindness toward local perspectives and experiences, partly due to a universalist assumption that technologies function uniformly across contexts.1 During my African Peacebuilding Network (APN) Individual Research Fellowship (2023/2024), I explored the nexus between the local and the digital in peacebuilding in Africa. Besides the rich insights gained, critical gaps were identified. Some of these confirmed Hirblinger’s2 observation about the persistence of Eurocentric worldviews on modernity and progress, their impact on peacebuilding initiatives, and limited understanding of the true impact of digital peacebuilding initiatives beyond assumptions about digital transformation. The result is a limited recognition of how local dynamics influence digital technology-driven peace initiatives. Importantly, my study identified a gap in opportunities for exchange, co-learning, and collaboration amongst peacebuilders interested in or utilizing digital technologies for peacebuilding in Africa. Participants explicitly articulated interest in such opportunities and talked about their attempts to create such spaces and community at project levels. 

This essay discusses how I utilized the Community of Practice (CoP) model to respond to some of these challenges and interests, demonstrating a vision of mutual shaping among research, policy, and practice spaces. This involved the establishment of a Digital Peacebuilding Africa (DP-Africa) CoP to create the space and opportunities for co-learning, co-creation, exchange, collaboration, and long-term relationship-building. 

Digital Peacebuilding and Transformation in Africa

Digital peacebuilding refers to the use of digital tools and strategies to prevent, resolve, and transform conflicts, and to strengthen social cohesion in both online and offline environments.3 Constraints to digital peacebuilding include limited access to digital infrastructure, online hate content, lack of capacity and resources amongst local peacebuilders, and more.4 The field is also characterised by a tech-solutionist narrative that overlooks the role of local knowledge systems and dynamics. 

This calls for transformative and decolonial approaches to inform the design and execution of digital peacebuilding initiatives. The transformative perspective views conflict as an opportunity for wider societal change and supports a more deliberate, long-term approach to achieving peace.5 Critical to such transformation, a decolonial approach interrogates the colonial logic embedded in peacebuilding models, emphasizing plurality of knowledge, lived experience, and structural justice.6 This approach adequately frames the DP-Africa CoP, as it prioritizes local agency, recognizes the relational and systemic dynamics of conflict, challenges dominant narratives of modernity and progress, and encourages ethical engagement with technology for peacebuilding. 

Community of Practice

The idea of Community of Practice is associated with Etienne Wenger, Jean Lave, and others.7 It refers to a group of people who share a common concern, interest, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise through continuous interaction. It results in new knowledge, relationship building, shared vision, aligned approach, and mutual commitment.8

CoPs – whether defined as such or not – have emerged in peacebuilding as collaborative, flexible, and relational spaces for learning, innovation, and capacity development, among practitioners working in conflict environments. They enable mutual support, horizontal knowledge exchanges, and co-construction of meaning and practice. For example, the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) uses the CoP model to organize practitioners, scholars, and other stakeholders globally around specific themes and topics. Through its Digital Peacebuilding CoP, members interact and engage each other on the role of innovation and technology in addressing pressing issues globally. It enables those already working at the intersection of technology and peacebuilding to network and share experiences. However, the need articulated in my APN research is for a more regionally focused platform to support a more diverse local, transformative, and decolonial approach to digital peacebuilding. 

Digital Peacebuilding – Africa  

The CoP model was applied to address the gaps mentioned earlier. Central to this is the need to understand and integrate local knowledge systems with digital methods, collectively explore the implication of digital peacebuilding in African contexts, and support local ownership and leadership in this area. The CoP establishment process involved a four-week virtual course on digital peacebuilding. The curriculum included three themes: 

  1. foundations of digital peacebuilding (relevance and trends) 
  2. key digital peacebuilding tools and techniques (data-driven strategies, mediation, and dialogue, narrative and counter-narratives, integrative strategies, and structural approaches) 
  3. community, locality, and digital engagement for peace (inclusivity, resilience, integrating local and indigenous knowledge systems, ethics, and critical approaches) 

Participation criteria included individuals or representatives of organizations who are interested in the role of digital technologies in peacebuilding in Africa. Ideal candidates have prior experience or knowledge in peacebuilding, reliable internet for active participation, and an interest in supporting our initiative’s growth. 

The first cohort featured participants from Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Ghana, Benin, and Western Sahara. They represented diverse professions such as peace activism, climate action, human rights advocacy, law, engineering, development, academia, and peacebuilding. Participants included members of civil society organizations, universities, research centres, and people working for organizations like the West Africa Network for Peace (WANEP) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The experience of participants ranges from newcomers in peacebuilding to seasoned professionals involved in national peace processes. The initiative was encouraged by the Director of the Centre for Media, Democracy, Peace & Security (CMDPS), Rongo University, Prof. Fredrick Ogenga; the Rotary Peace Fellowship and Rotary Peace Centre, Makerere University, which endorsed the training course and certificates; the Africa Lead of Build Up; and the Africa Mediation Association. 

Following the training of the first cohort, the CoP has concentrated on organizing monthly virtual sessions with global guests to share stories of their practice, discuss research, and policy. There are emerging collaborations around digital storytelling, digital campaigning, policy development, and resource mobilization. The CoP is also pursuing connection with relevant networks and has joined AfP’s digital peacebuilding CoP.  It is actively working on plans to develop future cohorts with the aim of offering the introductory digital peacebuilding course biannually. Activities of the CoP are updated on its LinkedIn9 page, through which those interested can connect or find contact information.

Conclusion: Why this Matters

DP-Africa is designed to be a dynamic CoP and a transformative space that supports continuous learning, collaboration, knowledge sharing, critical reflection, capacity building, research, and policy engagement. Additionally, it serves as an epistemic community that challenges dominant narratives in digital peacebuilding and highlights the contributions of African practitioners and researchers to global discussions on peace, technology, and transformation—although resource mobilization remains a key challenge. 

The CoP model facilitates collective exploration of local solutions and strategies, acknowledging local agency. It promotes horizontal exchange and collaboration, aiming to elevate lived experiences as a form of expertise that can interface effectively with other types of expertise, such as academic research and policy development. In this early stage of its establishment, DP-Africa has held two virtual sessions where leading practice organizations engaged attendees on building safe online spaces and an integrative media approach to addressing hate-speech and peacebuilding, based on the practical work they do on the continent. These monthly sessions are recorded and published on LinkedIn and YouTube,10 including summaries and key lessons. The CoP has also developed a digital campaign strategy for Gender Empowerment for South Sudan Organization (GESSO) to amplify its efforts to achieve better inclusion of the voices and needs of women in the South Sudan’s peace talks. The digital storytelling sub-team is working on collecting and sharing local stories of transformation, while the research and policy team is working on crafting policy documents and strategic participation in relevant dialogues on the continent, such as the recently concluded high-level T20 dialogue in South Africa. 

DP-Africa focuses on ethical, inclusive, and culturally relevant peacebuilding practices, which are less common in standardized technology-based approaches. By building long-term relationships and engaging in co-learning, communities of practice like DP-Africa can promote sustainability, social cohesion, and a shared sense of purpose among practitioners and researchers.

Acknowledgement: I wish to acknowledge the SSRC’s APN and Next Gen program; Rotary Peace Centre, Makerere University;  the Africa Mediation Association (AMA), the Maskani Commons in Kenya, and Women and Youth for Justice and Peace Initiative (WAYJPI), Nigeria, for the support that led to this initiative. My sincere gratitude to Joy Gitau of Amani Communities Africa, Kenya, Joy Kiminja (Kenya), Iliya Kambai Dennis (Nigeria), Gaoreteleloe Maseko (South Africa) and Hassy Bonnet (Nigeria), for their roles in managing and growing the initiative, and the entire DP-Africa team for active support.

Endnotes

  1. Hirblinger, Andreas Timo, Anna Hess, and Balthasar Benz. “Digital Peacebuilding: A Framework for Critical–Reflexive Engagement.” International Studies Perspectives 24, no. 3 (August 1, 2023): 265–84. https://doi.org/10.1093/isp/ekac015.
  2. Hirblinger, Andreas Timo, Anna Hess, and Balthasar Benz. Ibid.
  3. Schirch, Lisa. “25 Spheres of Digital Peacebuilding and PeaceTech.” Toda Peace Institute and Alliance for Peacebuilding, 2020.
  4. John, Sokfa. “Digital Peacebuilding in Africa: Trends, Challenges, Opportunities.” African Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies (AJPCoS) 13, no. 3 (2024): 79–101.
  5. Paffenholz, Thania. “Understanding Peacebuilding Theory: Management, Resolution and Transformation.” New Routes 14, no. 2 (2009): 3–6.
  6. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. Decolonization, Development and Knowledge in Africa: Turning Over a New Leaf. London: Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003030423.
  7. Li, Linda C., Anita L. Grimshaw, Judith A. Nielsen, and Margaret J. Graham. “Evolution of Wenger’s Concept of Community of Practice.” Implementation Science 4, no. 1 (December 2009): 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-11.
  8. Hoadley, Christopher. “What Is a Community of Practice and How Can We Support It?” In Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments, 286–99. New York: Routledge, 2012. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203813799-14/community-practice-support-christopher-hoadley.
  9. Digital Peacebuilding Africa – DPA: A Community of Practice. LinkedIn. Accessed May 7, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-peacebuilding-africa-dp-a-community-of-practice/?viewAsMember=true.
  10. Digital Peacebuilding Africa. YouTube Channel. Accessed May 7, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC76lYDvUzEVGDOfAp2saDgQ.
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