International Catalan Institute for Peace ICIP
African solutions for African problems: shortcomings and challenges in the current security model in Africa
“Peace, conflict and security in Africa"
03-05 November 2010
The seminars on “Peace, conflict and security in Africa,” organised by the ICIP in collaboration with Casa África and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) brought together a dozen experts from Europe and Africa between 3 and 5 November to debate the challenges and outlook in this field, on the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of many of the African countries.
With a hundred people attending, the issues covered at the seminars ranged from the role of the UNO in the processes for the construction of peace in Africa and the cooperation between the European Union and the African Union – in the presence of the main advisor on peace and security in Africa in the EU Council's Directorate General for External Relations, general Pierre Michel Joana – to the feasibility and work of regional security organisations such as ECOWAS, the role of women in conflict resolution and reconciliation, and the successes and limitations of policies for demobilisation and reinsertion of ex-combatants – especially in West Africa.
The speakers agreed that it is necessary to deconstruct the monolithic and fatalistic image of Africa that has so far stressed the classic Afropessimistic view of the continent, and to create a new approach to dealing with conflicts that takes their structural causes - historical, socio-economic and identity-based - into account as well as their triggers and the factors accelerating them, and to make greater efforts towards prevention and containment.
Shortcomings, challenges and solutions
The advantages and disadvantages of the idea of “African solutions for African problems” were discussed, as represented by the African Peace and Security Architecture designed by the African Union. This idea, which entails a more proactive role by local African organisations, nonetheless faces problems of a technical, logistic and financing nature. That was one of the points stressed by the speakers, and specific proposals were made in this respect. Tim Murithi, of South Africa's Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, asked for all the member countries of the Union African to allocate between 15 and 20% of their budget to defending the organisation.
External responsibilities
Other speakers, such as Mbuyi Kabunda - a lecturer at the Institut International des Droits de l'Homme in Strasbourg and the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) - a member of the African Studies Group and a lecturer at the UAM - underlined the importance of external responsibilities in African conflicts. For example, many of the weapons in circulation in Africa come from western countries. Furthermore, the international demand for natural resources such as petrol and coltan intensify internal civil conflicts. The fragility of African state and the impact of new players on the continent, especially China, are two of the future challenges that are also on the table, according to the conclusions of the seminars, which were included in the provisional conclusions by the president of the ICIP, Rafael Grasa, and the coordinator of the seminars, Óscar Mateos. The results of the seminars will be included in a report that will be published by the ICIP in the coming months.
