Conflict Prevention, Management and Reduction in Africa Europe and the Rest of the World

Kannen koko: 173 x 246, selkä 17,5 mm Preventing and Reducing Violent Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa Wars, armed violence and insecurity continue to blight Sub-Saharan Africa. Preventing and reducing such conflict has become a key priority not only for African governments and peoples, but also for Africa in Reduction and Management Prevention, Conflict Europe and the rest of the world. But successes have been limited, and important lessons have not been properly learned. This timely and important book examines the continuing sources and dynamics of violent conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa, and critically analyses policies and programmes to help to prevent, manage and reduce such conflicts. Commissioned by the Government of Finland, this book has been prepared by internationally recognised experts convened through a joint project by the Finnish Institute for Interna- tional Affairs (FIIA) and the Centre for International Co-operation and Security (CICS), University of Bradford, UK. It aims to contribute to urgently needed improvements in conflict prevention and reduction measures by the EU and the wider international community. Development Policy Information Unit Edited by Street address: Kanavakatu 4 a, 00160 Helsinki Postal address: Box 176, 00161 Helsinki Owen Greene, Julia Buxton and Charly Salonius-Pasternak Telephone: + 358 9 1605 6370 Telefax: + 358 9 1605 6375 Exchange: + 358 9 16005 E-mail:[email protected] Conflict Prevention, Internet: http://global.finland.fi Management and Reduction in Africa A Joint Project of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs & the Centre for International Cooperation and Security elements_conflit_2.indd 1 31.8.2006 16:15:8 Conflict Prevention, Management and Reduction in Africa Editors Julia Buxton, Owen Greene, Charly Salonius-Pasternak A Joint Project of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs & the Centre for International Cooperation and Security ISBN-13: 978-951-724-577-7 ISBN-10: 951-724-577-7 Hakapaino Oy Helsinki 2006 CONFLICT PREVENTION, MANAGEMENT AND REDUCTION IN AFRICA iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction, Owen Greene . v Chapter 1 Conflict Prevention, Management and Reduction in Africa: Issues and Priorities, Owen Greene . 1 Chapter 2 Developing International Capacities for Crisis Management and Crisis Response in Africa, Sarah Bayne, Catriona Gourlay and Hanna Ojanen . 37 Chapter 3 Support for DDR and SSR after Conflicts in Africa: Lessons-Learnt and New Agendas in Africa, Jeremy Ginifer . 75 Chapter 4 Promoting Democratisation, Good Governance, Human Rights Protection and Conflict Prevention in Africa, Julia Buxton (with contributions by Christiana Solomon and Liisa Laakso). 107 Chapter 5 Addressing the Political Economies of Armed Conflict in Africa, Cord Jakobeit with Michaela Maier and Neil Cooper. 145 Chapter 6 Promoting Conflict Sensitive Development Aid in Africa: Issues and Challenges, Owen Greene with Tracy Vienings . 179 Chapter 7 Trade, Economic Co-operation and CPMR in Africa, . Peter Draper and Cord Jakobeit with Elizabeth Sidiropoulos and Michaela Maier . 211 Chapter 8 Access to freshwater and Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in Africa, Volker Boege and Mandy Turner . 243 CONFLICT PREVENTION, MANAGEMENT AND REDUCTION IN AFRICA v Introduction Owen Greene Wars, armed violence and insecurity continue to blight Africa, contributing to human suffering and obstructing poverty alleviation across much of the continent. Preventing and reducing violent conflict has become a key priority not only for African governments and peoples, but also for Europe and the rest of the world. This book examines the sources and dynamics of violent conflict and insecurity in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, and critically analyses recent policies and programmes to help to prevent, manage and reduce such conflicts. It aims to contribute to improvements in conflict prevention and reduction policies and programmes by the EU and the wider international community. Challenges of Conflict Prevention, Management and Reduction (CPMR) In principle, some key priorities relating to reducing risks of war and conflict are easy to outline. Conflict prevention activities are required to reduce manifest tensions and/ or prevent the outbreak or recurrence of violent conflict. Once violent conflict has started, conflict management and reduction activities become a priority; to prevent the escalation of violent conflict, reduce its intensity or geographical extent, and bring war to an end. Thereafter, peace-building activities come to the fore: to address underlying causes of violent conflict and/or to enhance resilience against risks of resurgent violence. This includes conflict resolution activities to resolve underlying disputes or divisions. In practice, enormous international attention and resources have rightly been devoted to efforts to manage, reduce and end wars, and to promote post-conflict stability, re- construction and peace-building. Experience has shown that such enterprises are complex, frustrating and expensive. Even with the best efforts there are high risks of failure. This is particularly the case for the so-called ‘new wars’, characterised by a combination of civil and transnational conflicts involving state break-down, a range of armed groups and high civilian casualties. Ceasefires are broken, and violent conflicts are most likely to break-out in countries that have recently emerged from such wars. There are limits on what the UN and other international actors can achieve. Nevertheless, vi CONFLICT PREVENTION, MANAGEMENT AND REDUCTION IN AFRICA their intervention and engagement has been mostly critically important in limiting the scope and intensity of the violence and accelerating progress towards peace. It is widely agreed that much the best strategy is to aim to prevent wars and violent conflicts breaking out in the first place. Normally opportunities exist to manage and resolve tensions and conflicts, which reduce or disappear once large-scale violence breaks out. In human terms, everything possible should be done to avoid the death and destruction that are the direct and indirect consequence of wars. But conflict prevention is typically also a challenging task, requiring substantial and sustained political, economic, social or security engagement. Once conflicts become sufficiently serious to attract high level political attention, either nationally or internationally, they have become deeply-rooted and dynamic. There will be important stakeholders and drivers of the conflict. In conflict-prone countries, efforts to prevent conflict can be costly and contentious; involving challenging powerful interests, investment in structural change, and likely accusations of undue interference in internal affairs. In large parts of the world, most countries are arguably faced with significant risks of conflict, at least in the medium or long term. It can be hard to identify which of these are most likely to escalate to large-scale violence, and how best to respond. It is generally even harder to develop timely international agreement on conflict prevention response strategies. Regrettably, this results in the tendency for governments and international institutions to focus on responding to crises rather than engage in timely conflict prevention before crises emerge. Understandings, policies and institutions for timely conflict prevention activities remain inadequately developed. This is true for the European Union as it is for other key international actors. Sub-Saharan Africa: a priority Much of Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced armed conflict in recent decades. In the last ten years, the majority of conflict-related deaths and injuries in the world have occurred in this region, and large numbers of people continue to suffer from insecurity and fear of violence. Moreover, these facts appear to be intimately related to the uniquely poor progress across much of Sub-Saharan Africa towards the Millenium Development Goals. Conflict prevention, management and reduction (CPMR) and peacebuilding are a particular priority for this continent. This primarily depends on African efforts, but international actors have a key role to play. Recently, the European Union, the G8 and their partners have determined to play as constructive a role as possible in Africa, particularly in relation to CPMR and development. Progress in these areas would be strongly in both Africa’s and Europe’s interests. CONFLICT PREVENTION, MANAGEMENT AND REDUCTION IN AFRICA vii Although progress has been made, it is clear that effective action by the EU and its partners to support and promote CPMR in Sub-Saharan Africa requires substantial further development and implementation of appropriate policies, instruments and programmes. For example, there can is still be a big gap between the EU’s declared policies in this area and the actual practices. Moreover, the issues of policy ‘coherence’ and co-ordination remain critical. Too often, there is low coherence between the EU’s trade, development aid and CPMR policies in Africa; EU member states and their partners have differing and sometimes contradictory approaches; and pursuit of narrow national self-interest continues to be a disruptive factor. The FIIA/CICS Project As part of its preparations for its Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2006, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Government of Finland, commissioned a joint project by the Finnish Institute for International Affairs (FIIA) and the Centre for International Co-operation and Security (CICS),

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