Africa

This blogpost draws on a short paper prepared by a group of International Alert colleagues and I, which we have just published on Alert’s website, entitled Promoting peace: The African Union at 50.

In both low and middle income countries, well established arguments and solid evidence confirm that there is no real development without peace and only the peace of the graveyard without development. These conclusions have shifted the fulcrum of discussion about development over the past several years. But they have not yet added up to telling anybody how to do it.

Last week we launched a new report, Governance and livelihoods in Uganda’s oil-rich Albertine Graben.

An innovative project in Rwanda is helping to heal old wounds by bringing genocide survivors, ex-combatants, ex-prisoners and the youth together through dialogue.

Our new paper, Crisis in Mali, looks at what a peacebuilding approach to the conflict in the country could look like.

Article published on 28th February 2013, The Huffinton Post

The latest agreement for peace in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) offers a fresh and much needed glimmer of hope for ordinary Congolese citizens suffering from two decades of violence.

The civil war in Burundi led to the death of 300,000 people and the displacement of 1 million more. Now with an influx of people returning, the road to recovery truly begins. Moving on from conflict means the rebuilding of lives after the trauma of violence, dealing with the death of loved ones and returning home to find land and homes repossessed.

For years the international community has attempted to help stabilize Eastern DRC, at the expense of billions of dollars, yet sustainable peace remains elusive. Elections in November 2011 were widely seen as lacking credibility¹ and provincial and local elections have been delayed indefinitely. There has been scant progress on critical reforms in justice, security, land and governance. Successive military campaigns have failed to remove foreign and domestic armed groups and have increased the population’s suffering causing large scale displacement.

Depuis plusieurs années la communauté internationale a essaye de stabiliser l'Est de la RDC, a un cout des milliards de dollars, mais cette paix durable continue de faire défaut. Les élections présidentielles et législatives de novembre 2011 étaient perçues comme étant peu crédibles¹ et en ce qui concerne les élections provinciales et locales, elles ont été reportées indéfiniment. Peu de progrès ont été constatés quant aux réformes cruciales dans les secteurs de la justice, la sécurité, les affaires foncières et de la gouvernance.

Accompanying African Union Liaison Offices 

Working with the Peace and Security Department (PSD) of the African Union Commission (AUC), International Alert has recently taken up a three year project aimed at supporting African Union Liaison Offices (AULOs) to enhance the Commission’s work in conflict and post conflict environments.