Author	Fitzroy Nation, free-lance journalist[1]
Publication	Conflict Prevention Newsletter
Year	vol. 2, no. 3 (October 1999), pp. 8-9, 11

Keywords

conflict prevention ; network

Africanets: No Boundaries

Networks of conflict prevention organisations have cast a blanket of peace building across Africa. In the process, civil society on the continent is developing less of a narrow national focus, and becoming more sub-regional, regional, and even Pan-African in character and outlook.

Networks have sprung up in such large numbers over the last decade - and Africa is no exception here - that they now have gained recognition as a separate category of activity, alongside NGOs, multilateral organisations and governmental actors. One reason for the rapid growth of networks is the growing awareness that conflicts do not respect physical borders. Frequently two countries, and on occasions a whole group of countries, get sucked in. That recommends a greater bonding of organisations, and the sharing of common experiences. The wide availability and relative ease of use of communications technologies is also a spur. With a computer, email and modem even small NGOs operating on a shoestring budget, can acquire a higher profile than previously - and become more effective by linking with counterparts. Information and experiences can be exchanged. Minutes of meetings and research reports downloaded with relative ease. Email messages criss-cross borders without danger of Big Brother style monitoring by hostile governments. Workshops can be organised. Joint programmes planned. Sometimes these networks are highly formalised. The trend has both South-South and North-South elements. In other instances, they function merely as a kind of virtual community, the high-tech age equivalent of regular gatherings around a cup of coffee or tea to share ideas and develop strategies. Organisations are as varied in name as the range of activities in which they are engaged. From Life & Peace Institute, operators of a major conflict transformation programmes in the Horn of Africa, to Synergies Africa, which, as its name suggests, works on a variety of cooperation programmes with NGOs in ten countries of West Africa.

An NGO equivalent of a regional organisation

The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) typifies the trend. Launched in 1997, this organisation could be called the NGO equivalent of ECOWAS, the association of regional states, which, in an effort to reduce conflict in the region intervened in Liberia and Sierra Leone. WANEP enables groups and organisations involved in peace building to exchange experiences and information on issues such as human rights, conflict resolution/transformation, social, religious, and political reconciliation, and peace building. WANEP's activities seek to forge personal and professional relationships, allow for cross-fertilisation of ideas and expertise, exchange research programmes, and intervention in social, religious and political conflicts in West Africa. Many of the networks being set up in Africa are interlinked - networks of networks, so to speak. Thus WANEP is among the members of FEWER - the Forum on Early Warning and Early Response - which is itself a model of the kinds of networks spreading their influence continent-wide. Twenty-two international NGOs, academics, lobbyists, UN agencies and governments joined forces to set up FEWER. As a knowledge exchange network allowing for the sharing of experiences in areas like early warning, conflict prevention and conflict resolution, FEWER believes it can help avoid such lapses occurring in the future. A multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary body combining various organisations with interest in Asia, Africa, North America, and East- and West-Europe, FEWER's goals include providing support for early warning networks. One of FEWER's objectives is to add value to and complement existing early warning systems and processes. It attempts to make research more policy-relevant and useful to local actors and supports local and regionally managed early warning activities in areas of conflict. In effect, FEWER is an organisation of organisations. Its membership includes regional as well as international bodies. Among them is the Africa Peace Forum, based in Nairobi, a conflict prevention NGO with activities on the ground in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa - research (particularly on arms transfers) and early warning in the Great Lakes. Another member of FEWER is the Conseil National des ONG pour le Developpement du DRC (CNONGD), a network of eleven human rights, development and peace NGOs located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. CNONGD's goal is to strengthen civil society and democracy in the DRC. Its mission is to support the activities of its members by providing education, training, and technical assistance. ACCORD (South Africa), Inter Africa Group (Ethiopia), International Resource Group and Nairobi Peace Initiative (Kenya) are also associated with FEWER. The involvement in Africa of bodies like the International Resource Group (IRG) offers prospects for strengthening the roots and branches of NGOs even further, as well as reinforcing the principles guiding their work. IRG is a special interest group of National University Telecommunications Network of the USA. Its thesis is that existing social systems throughout the world need direction, support and encouragement in coming to terms with the emerging global society. Through its involvement with African NGOs, IRG seeks to offer a forum through which discussion and understanding can take place relative to the development of the goals, priorities, values and philosophies needed to implement and govern global learning efforts. African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), based in South Africa, seeks to encourage and further constructive resolution of conflicts by Africa's peoples and help achieve peaceful coexistence, political stability and economic progress within societies where justice and democracy prevail. ACCORD's networking activities draw fifteen universities in Southern Africa into its Conflict Resolution Policy and Research Group (CRPRG). The organisation has established a Preventive Diplomacy Forum to facilitate intervention in conflicts. It also conducts training in preventive diplomacy and peace keeping. The body now known as Nairobi Peace Initiative (NPI) used to be called the Nairobi Peace Group (NPG). The name change is more than window dressing: it mirrors the organisation's altered focus and new operating method. Where NPG was mainly concerned with building public awareness of the nature and consequences of African conflicts, NPI's approach is multi-disciplinary and holistic. Conflict prevention not as a separate activity, but rather as an element of peace building and conflict transformation. Now, in its new incarnation as NPI, the organisation is considered an indigenous African peace resource organisation. NPI also seeks to build local capacity through training people in conflict situations in peace making and peace-building skills relevant to their respective communities.

The Horn of Africa

In the conflict zone that is the Horn of Africa, a variety of networks have been developed, stringing together various groups operating in the region. Some, like the Inter Africa Group, based in Addis Ababa, are engaged in awareness-raising projects. A non-partisan body, Inter Africa Group operates on a regional basis to advance humanitarian principles, peace and development in the greater Horn of Africa region. Its programmes combine research, dialogue, public education and advocacy. Through expert consultations, brainstorming sessions and efforts to sensitise public opinion, the Inter-Africa Group promotes greater awareness and understanding of victims of disaster and armed conflict and assists in developing national and international consensus on coherent and timely response. Also active in that region, and adopting a networking approach, is the Life & Peace Institute. In fact, it is in the Horn of Africa that the Institute has its largest conflict transformation programme. Traditional research projects and targeted action research are combined with practical support for grassroots peace-building initiatives in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia/Somaliland and Sudan. Coordination of the work in Somalia/Somaliland, LPI's largest peace-building programme, is carried out from the regional office in Nairobi, Kenya. In Somalia/Somaliland, LPI has a number of national zonal officers, trainers as well as women's coordinators.

Great Lakes

In Central Africa, the Great Lakes Policy Forum, established in the wake of the Rwanda genocide of 1994, is the joint networking initiative of the Center for Preventive Action, based in the United States, along with Refugees International, Search for Common Ground, and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 'The Great Lakes Policy Forum enables international actors working to prevent further violence in the region to exchange information, coordinate strategies, evaluate their activities, and advocate policies to the U.S. and other governments,' says one of its documents. Monthly meetings are held in Washington, D.C. This body also cooperates closely with the EuroForum on the Great Lakes in Brussels, a body set up by CPA and the European Centre for Common Ground to improve transatlantic cooperation in the region. Great Lakes Policy Forum has the advantage of joining together NGO staff, as well as staff from various agencies of the US government, and international organisations. Because of that broad composition, the Forum is viewed as having the ability to influence North American and European policy in the region.

Southern Africa

Further to the south, in South Africa itself, the Centre for Conflict Resolution has as its primary focus the promotion of peace in that country and elsewhere using constructive, creative and cooperative approaches to conflict resolution and reduction of violence. The Centre, an independent institute associated with the University of Cape Town, seeks to contribute towards a just peace in South and Southern Africa. To that end, it provides third-party assistance in the resolution of political and community conflict, equips people with conflict management skills, promotes public awareness of the value of constructive conflict resolution, promotes democratic values, and advocates disarmament and demilitarisation. Mediation, training, education and research are among the Centre's main activities. Its emphasis is on capacity building at grassroots level. In the post-apartheid era the emphasis has shifted to include other African countries, especially in the Southern and Great Lakes regions. A new focus is on training senior African officials in constructively managing conflict. In order to reduce reliance on foreign donors, the Centre today puts greater emphasis on generating its own income.

International

The Global Coalition for Africa (GCA) combines North-South cooperation in forging policy consensus on development priorities among African governments, their northern partners, and non-governmental groups working in and on Africa. Its leadership includes African leaders as well as prominent figures from Europe and North America. The GCA Secretariat is located in Washington, D.C. It emerged out of a meeting in July 1990 of African policy makers and representatives of the international community held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, to discuss priority areas in Africa's development, and the future of development cooperation. Their discussions resulted in a proposal to create a forum that would follow-up and implement the concept of a 'global coalition for Africa'. They envisioned it as a 'continuing association of interested parties, which would bring together representatives of African governments, bilateral donors, regional and multilateral agencies, and other development partners in Africa', to 'examine the full range of development issues' in Africa, discuss and agree on programmes of action, and monitor the results. It is thus a forum where decision-makers from African countries and the international community can discuss issues of current relevance to Africa's development, reach consensus, and then return to their own organisations to implement agreed actions. 1 This article is an adapted version of a chapter in the European Platform's most recent publication: 'Searching for Peace in Africa. An Overview of Conflict Prevention and Management Activities.'

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