Peace Building in Africa

Abstract

Africa has been the theatre of conflicts since the end of the Cold War. Intra-state conflicts have particularly taken a heavy toll on human lives in the past two decades. The state of insecurity in the continent has retarded socio-economic and political goals and set the continent decades back in all development indices. Consequently, Africans have witnessed unprecedented levels of misery and human suffering. This makes peace building an important engagement in the continent as a necessary tool to re-establish security and initiate the process of nation-building in war ravaged countries in the continent. This paper is a contribution to the debate on the place of peace building in a troubled continent. The analysis is dependent on secondary sources: the internet, textbooks, newspapers and magazines. The paper discussed the roles of local level involvement, government/state institutions and international partners and organizations in peace building in Africa. Identified challenges to peace building are the conception of peace building as a post conflict engagement by the international community, lack of capacity and proper coordination, lack of resources and external influence, and control of the process and programmes. To surmount these challenges, the paper recommended the involvement of local actors in the design and implementation of peace building programmes, indigenous capacity building, and central coordination of peace building initiatives.