Welcome to Kujenga Amani (Swahili for “building peace”), the digital forum of the African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics Program (APDD) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).
The APDD promotes the visibility and dissemination of high-quality African research-based knowledge and informed commentary by African experts among critical constituencies in global centers of scholarly analysis, policy, and practical action. This includes, but is not limited to, key policymakers at the United Nations, African Union, and other multilateral organizations, as well as regional and national policymaking institutions.
Kujenga Amani facilitates the exchange of ideas and information between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on peacebuilding in Africa. It is a digital forum for diverse conversations about critical challenges confronting peacebuilding in conflict-affected regions of the continent, as well as exploring the inextricable connections between African and global peace.
Kujenga Amani is also a platform for news on innovative research, including reviews and reflections of publications on African peacebuilding, as well as trends and developments in the field. Of particular note are published essays and briefs on Africa-related peace initiatives, and reports on APDD-supported research, fieldwork, and projects. Kujenga Amani’s ultimate role is in launching new voices who confront peacebuilding in conflict-affected regions of Africa, as well as highlighting new knowledge produced by African scholars and practitioners based on the continent.
Past topics covered by the forum include conflict, elections and democracy, mediation and reconciliation, post-conflict recovery, the role of the media, gender and peacebuilding, natural resource conflict, migration and refugees, the politics of peacebuilding, the role of regional and international organizations in peacebuilding, violent extremism, and conflict between farmers and herders.
Although contributions to Kujenga Amani are by invitation, we are open to receiving submissions, inquiries, and suggestions. For information on how to submit an essay, please visit our submissions guidelines page.
The views and opinions expressed in articles published on Kujenga Amani are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics Program or the Social Science Research Council, unless directly stated otherwise.
We encourage readers to join discussions by commenting on individual posts (all comments are reviewed prior to posting). Questions regarding editorial policy and terms of use should be directed to the editors.
Except where otherwise noted, content published by Kujenga Amani is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. This license permits you to copy, distribute, and display content as long as you provide a link to the content at Kujenga Amani, attribute the work appropriately (including both author and title), and do not adapt the content or use it commercially.
For more information on the APDD Program or the Kujenga Amani forum, contact apdd@ssrc.org.
Editor-in-Chief: Cyril Obi
The APDD program is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York.