Ending Conflict & Building Peace in Africa: A Call to Action
Publisher: African Development Bank
Date: 2014
Topics: Climate Change, Conflict Prevention, Economic Recovery, Extractive Resources, Governance, Livelihoods
Countries: Burundi, Congo (DRC), Cote d'Ivoire, South Sudan
The High-Level Panel on Fragile States in Africa was established on the initiative of President Kaberuka of the African Development Bank (AfDB or ‘the Bank’). Under the leadership of Her Excellency Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, the Panel was asked to review the likely sources of fragility in Africa in the coming years and to make recommendations both for the Bank and the wider policy community as to how they should be tackled.
Africa is changing at an extraordinary speed. This report comes at a critical time in light of the current emerging and new conflict on the continent. In the coming period, the combined pressures of a growing population, environmental change and rapid economic growth will transform the lives and livelihoods of Africans at an unprecedented pace. These changes are in many respects positive, providing the impetus for Africa’s continuing development. But with change also comes risk. Rapid urbanisation, youth unemployment, inequality and social exclusion, new natural resource finds and a changing climate all have the potential to place African societies under considerable strain. Last but not least, urgent attention must be given to the transition of national movements into statebuilding and peacebuilding processes.
Fragility comes about where these pressures become too great for national institutions and political processes to manage, creating a risk of violence. This is further recognised in the on-going crisis in South Sudan where the national institutions needed to be transformed to an inclusive civil administration in the shortest possible time.
We therefore see fragility not as a category of states, but as a risk inherent in the development processes itself. In the coming period, it will appear across Africa in different places and forms, at national or local level – including in countries not currently classified as fragile.
We see the challenge of addressing conflict and fragility in Africa as twofold. The first part is mounting an effective policy response to the most disruptive economic, social and environmental changes facing Africa. The second part is creating resilient states and societies able to manage those pressures. This entails building interlocking institutions and partnerships at the community, state and regional levels. Our twin themes for this report are therefore managing change and forging partnerships.