Managing, Preventing, and Resolving Conflict in Africa
A View from the United Nations

Kevin Joseph and Bridget Moix work with the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in New York on issues related to peacebuilding and disarmament. The Quaker UN Offices in New York and Geneva have facilitated off-the-record dialogues on difficult issues with the UN community for more than 50 years.

In late May 2001, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will gather at the United Nations to participate in the UN's first NGO Informal Session on Education, Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in Africa. The session offers an opportunity for civil society activists to share information, network, and strategize together around the recommendations contained in a report presented three years ago to the Security Council and the General Assembly by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. That report, titled "Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa," marked an important milestone in the UN's efforts to respond to today's conflicts, the majority of which occur in Africa. (See www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/sgreport/index.html for full text of the report.)

Not only did the 1998 "Causes of Conflict" report signal new attention being paid to Africa and African conflicts, it also presented in relative depth an emerging focus on the prevention of violent conflict and promotion of post-conflict peacebuilding as central to the UN's task of "maintain[ing] international peace and security" (UN Charter, Chapter 1). Following the international community's recent failures in Somalia and Rwanda and facing persistent conflicts in Angola, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the report demanded a shift in priorities, a greater understanding of root causes, and a stronger political and resource commitment to Africa.

As Secretary-General Annan noted in the report, "The prevention of conflict begins and ends with the promotion of human security and human development."

Challenges Abound

When NGOs gather for the Informal Session on Education, Conflict Prevention, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in Africa this May, they do so in the midst of ongoing debate around a number of critical issues related to conflict in Africa.

UN peacekeeping (dark) and peacebuilding (lighter shade) missions in Africa. Map prepared by Peace & Security Section, UN Dept. of Public Information

Members of the Security Council estimate that they now spend as much as 75% of their active debate and working time on issues related to Africa, a remarkable shift since the Cold War era. This growth in attention can be credited both to the number and intensity of conflicts on the continent, but also to the Secretary-General's commitment and advocacy on behalf of Africa. More than ever, the time and energy of the UN's main organ responsible for peace and security are focused on Africa, with sessions addressing issues ranging from the ongoing peace missions operating in 12 African countries, to the exploitation of resources in Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. How these and other related issues are addressed at the international policy-making level will inevitably affect how civil society partners on the ground are able to help implement recommendations from the "Causes of Conflict" report.

Conflict Resources: In April, an experts panel presented a report to the Security Council on the exploitation of resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), harshly indicting some of the government actors involved in the ongoing conflict there for complicity in illegal activities related to resource extraction and trade. The report has sparked considerable controversy in and outside the UN. It follows a previous report on "conflict diamonds" in Angola, which began the process of "naming and shaming" actors involved in resource exploitation that fuels situations of conflict. The UN and its Member States continue to struggle with questions of how to impose "smart" sanctions or arms embargoes that can be effective in such cases, and the report on the DRC has been criticized as biased and poorly documented. Whether it will have a sum negative or positive impact on the Lusaka peace process to end the war and restore stability in the region has yet to be seen.

Small Arms: This July, government leaders will meet in New York for the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade of Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. The conference aims to address destabilizing clandestine flows of weapons, worth over $1 billion worldwide. With an estimated 100 million weapons circulating in Africa (7 million in West Africa alone) the role of brokers and middlemen in moving guns from conflict to conflict in a matter of hours has taken a tremendous toll: since 1990, 4 million deaths, 90% of them civilians and 80% women and children. The UN Conference process has tended to focus solely on the supply side of the small arms equation, however, there is increasing pressure to address the problem in all its aspects, including demand side dynamics. Increasingly active has been the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) [www.iansa.org], a rapidly growing network of some 200 civil society organizations from over 70 countries working on both the humanitarian and policy dimensions of small arms. As the "Causes of Conflict" report noted, "The goal of public identification of international arms merchants and their activities has proven elusive, but perhaps no other single initiative would do more to help combat the flow of illicit arms to Africa--a trade that is made possible largely by the secrecy that surrounds it."

Child Soldiers: Meanwhile, in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Commission continues its work (without the US since it was recently voted off the body) around issues of the rights of the child, including the use of children in armed conflict. Although estimates range considerably, as many as 600,000 child soldiers may be involved in conflicts around the world, a great many of them in Africa. In many cases, young girls and boys are taken from their families and forced into service--armed and otherwise--by rebel groups. In other instances, joining armed groups seems the only option for youth in societies where conflict and desperate poverty have become a way of life. In Africa, a new generation is growing up with direct experience and the traumatic aftereffects of armed conflict and brutal violence. The global community must find ways to prevent the further recruitment and abuse of children in situations of conflict, and to reintegrate those youth who have been involved back into a society that can provide for their psychological, physical, social, and economic needs.

Conflict Prevention: The UN also continues its debate and agenda-setting around the larger thematic issue of the prevention of violent conflict, described in the UN as "conflict prevention." (The use of this terms is not meant to imply the suppression of conflict, but rather the ability to prevent the outbreak or reoccurrence of violence by addressing the structural roots of conflict and creating the operational capacity to de-escalate disputes and ensure their peaceful management before the threat of armed conflict erupts.) The first, but perhaps not last, report from the Secretary-General devoted specifically to Conflict Prevention is expected out in late May or early June, around the same time as the NGO informal session on the "Causes of Conflict" report. Although its full content has yet to be seen, the report is expected to set the stage for beginning a more practically-oriented, open debate with Member States, UN agencies, and civil society on both realizing the potential of current mechanisms to prevent violent conflict and increasing national, regional, and international capacity for the early, peaceful management of disputes.

A Practical Approach Stands Out

Regional and sub-regional initiatives are critical to a practical approach in addressing these challenges. One such approach that has emerged from the Southern African experience with small arms is a three-tiered model anchored in an understanding that countries experience the malfeasances of small arms proliferation in different ways. Therefore, a practical approach must be based on initiatives borne out of specific national and regional priorities and resources. This formula enables ownership at every level of implementation, with efforts based on a relevant personal experience. Developed by the Arms Management Program of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, the approach emphasizes prevention, management, and resolution, as universal categories under which initiatives could be organized. Overlapping efforts to manage existing arms and limit their impact, to resolve the issue of proliferation through collection and destruction of surplus weapons, and to prevent future flows by enhancing laws as well as wider peacebuilding and development programs, are essential for a longer term resolution of the scourge of small arms on the continent.

A similar, tiered approach might be useful in addressing other aspects of the UN's conflict and peacemaking agenda. The United Nations system as a whole is slowly moving toward a more integrated approach to conflict that fuses short, medium, and long-term strategies. Indeed, a series of reports over the past and coming year have focused on improving UN peace operations (managing), enhancing preventive capacity (preventing), and strengthening post-conflict peacebuilding (resolving). However, political will, resource commitments, and coordination remain considerable challenges to realizing these heightened goals.

In the meantime, the UN would do well to learn from the approach of civil society groups working in Africa, with local communities, to address the problem of small arms from the bottom up. Dealing with today's conflicts, whether in Africa or Colombia or Indonesia or elsewhere, will require an integrated approach of managing current violence, preventing future conflict eruptions, resolving past problems, and undoing structural causes. That is a tall order for the global community, one which will not be filled without the commitment of all sectors of society, working cooperatively from the grassroots to the highest policy levels.

How to Help

1. Support:  Help mobilize support for the UN and its work in your own communities.  Demand on the UN to respond to situations of conflict and help build more peaceful societies has grown at a tremendous rate over the past decade.  Meanwhile, its resources are shrinking.  More than ever the UN needs vocal citizen support around the world, urging governments to invest in and engage with the UN.  Speak to your local and national representatives about global issues of concern to you.  Urge them to support the UN and to work constructively with the international community to solve difficult problems together.

2.  Educate:  Inform yourself and others about the work of the UN and ways that local groups can become involved.   The UN (www.un.org) and other organizations that work with the UN (see links on www.quno.org) provide a wealth of information about the UN and its work to reduce conflict.  Educate yourself and your communities about the issues you care about. Urge your local media to cover the international scene more often and in greater depth.

3.  Participate:  Become involved with organizations that work with the UN or find ways to connect local groups to global concerns. More and more the UN recognizes the importance of engaging with civil society as partners in its work.  Often UN conferences and events include mechanisms for NGO participation.  These are valuable opportunities to bring local experience and understanding to the international policy-making arena.  For information on how the UN partners with civil society, visit http://www.un.org/partners/civil_society/home.htm.

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