"The 2013 Kenyan elections should be assessed as a process and not as an event. Although it is not clear what direct impact they had on democracy and peacebuilding in the short…
Latest posts - Page 53
On the Spot
South Africa: 2014 Elections
by African Peacebuilding Network
The African Peacebuilding Network asked several scholars and practitioners to explore what they consider to be the most significant issue(s) in the coming elections and the likely implications for post-2014 South Africa. What do these elections portend for the country in the face of domestic demands for solutions to problems of rising levels of poverty, violent crime, unemployment, inequality, corruption, and unequal access to basic services? How might these elections affect South Africa's role within southern Africa? What implications will they have for the country's relations with the rest of Africa, the West, and the emerging powers?
Essays
Replacing Boko Haram with an “Attractive Revolution”
by Bill Knight
"Restarting this process of building mass literacy could be a good way to revitalize all of NEAZDP’s components, rebuild trust, resurrect peace, and open the door to other community-driven integrated development initiatives .... Carried out by and for the people, such initiatives would replace the slogan 'education is bad' with 'education is good,' and thereby begin to address the integrated problems of generations going back to the 1970s."
Essays
Post-Amnesty Reintegration and Peacebuilding Challenges in Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region: The Way Forward
Conflict
Central African Republic Crisis: Conflating Form with Substance?
by Richard Akum
“As insecurity persists, the conflict complexes continue to feed contending networks on the CAR stage, which will add to the intractability of the current conflict. If peacebuilding initiatives are to be developed that give equal importance to statebuilding, everyday politics, and human security, a more thorough analysis of the conflict is needed that clearly distinguishes its form from its substance.”
Conflict
South Sudan and the Complications of Peacebuilding through Statebuilding
by Meron Tesfamichael
“The struggle for power between factions at the center depends on building and undermining state institutions simultaneously—a process international assistance has not been able to rein in. The international technical support for state building appears overwhelmed by the dynamics of state formation, which is inherently political and often violent. Meanwhile, peacebuilding interventions are increasingly overshadowed by the urgency to build the state.”
Conflict
The Recent Conflict in the Central African Republic: Which Way Out of the Crisis?
by Angela Meyer
"With regime changes by coups d’états as the rule, the political reality in the CAR has been characterized by regimes lacking in legitimacy, a dysfunctional public sector and institutions, and weak state power .... In this regard, it can be said that the crisis has in fact been brewing for long and conditions for an open conflict to emerge were given."
Democracy, Development and Governance
More Than an Inspirational Freedom Fighter: A Tribute to Nelson Mandela
by Maxi Schoeman
Nelson Mandela inspired our entire continent and its people, and had an immense influence on the changing face of Africa as a whole. Hamba kahle, Madiba. We will never forget you.
