August 19, 2010
Centre for Conflict Resolution (Cape Town, South Africa)
Abstract:
The Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR) in Cape Town, South Africa, held a two-day policy seminar
on 19 and 20 May 2008 at Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. The experiences and lessons at the local level in South Africa became a vital building block to expand
interventions to the rest of southern Africa, beginning in Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. CCR selected the
three countries to inform interventions at the regional level on the basis of a shared common history and similar
governance challenges following transitions to democracy. The Centre’s work aims to bring together key actors
to resolve conflict utilising constructive approaches. To this end, CCR has sought to engage key actors in
government and civil society in long-term capacity and skills-building exercises in order to enhance their
knowledge and practice of constructive conflict management approaches while simultaneously building trust
and confidence between polarised groups. Ultimately, this approach seeks to create opportunities for political
and social dialogue between diverse groups....
June 17, 2010
Institute for Security Studies // L'Institut d'Etudes de Sécurité
Abstract:
This monograph contains papers that were presented at the International Conference on Climate Change and Natural Resources Conflicts in Africa, 14–15 May 2009, Entebbe, Uganda, organised by the Environment Security Programme (ESP) of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Nairobi Office.
The climate change phenomenon is a global concern, which typically threatens the sustainability of the livelihoods of the majority of the population living in the developing countries. Africa, particularly the sub-Saharan region, is likely to be negatively impacted by climate variability and change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Africa’s vulnerability arises from a combination of many factors, including extreme poverty, a high rate of population increase, frequent natural disasters such as droughts and floods, and agricultural systems (both crop and livestock production) that depend heavily on rainfall. Extreme natural occurrences such as floods and droughts are becoming increasingly frequent and severe. Africa’s high vulnerability to the negative impacts of climate variability and change is also attributed to its low adaptive capacity.
Climate variability and change have further exacerbated the scarcity of natural resources on the African continent, leading to conflicts with regard to access to, and ownership and use of these resources. The scarcity of natural resources is known to trigger competition for the meagre resources available among both individuals and communities, and even institutions, thus affecting human security on the continent....
March 12, 2010
International Development Research Centre // Wits University Press
Abstract:
Southern Africa has embarked on one of the world’s most ambitious security co-operation initiatives, seeking to roll out the principles of the United Nations at regional levels. This book examines the triangular relationship between democratisation, the character of democracy and its deficits, and national security practices and perceptions of eleven southern African states. It explores what impact these processes and practices have had on the collaborative security project in the region. Based on national studies conducted by African academics and security practitioners over three years, it includes an examination of the way security is conceived and managed, as well as a comparative analysis of regional security co-operation in the developing world. This book includes: Chapter 1: Democratic Governance and Security: A Conceptual Exploration, by Andre du Pisani; Chapter 2: Comparative Perspectives on Regional Security Co-operation among Developing Countries, by Gavin Cawthra; Chapter 3: Southern African Security in Historical Perspective, by Abillah H. Omari and Paulino Macaringue; Chapter 4: Botswana, by Mpho G. Molomo, Zibani Maundeni, Bertha Osei-Hwedie, Ian Taylor, and Shelly Whitman; Chapter 5: Lesotho, by Khabele Matlosa; Chapter 6: Mauritius, by Gavin Cawthra; Chapter 7: Mozambique, by Anicia Lalá; Chapter 8: Namibia, by Bill Lindeke, Phanuel Kaapama, and Leslie Blaauw; Chapter 9: Seychelles, by Anthoni van Nieuwkerk and William M. Bell; Chapter 10: South Africa, by Maxi Schoeman; Chapter 11: Swaziland, by Joseph Bheki Mzizi; Chapter 12: Tanzania Mohammed, by Omar Maundi; Chapter 13: Zambia, by Bizeck Jube Phiri; Chapter 14: Zimbabwe, by Ken D. Manungo; and Chapter 15: Conclusions, by Gavin Cawthra, Khabele Matlosa, and Anthoni van Nieuwkerk....
November 14, 2008
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
IPI is pleased to introduce a new series of working papers on regional capacities to respond to security
challenges in Africa. The broad range of United Nations, African Union, and subregional peacekeeping,
peacemaking, and peacebuilding initiatives in Africa underscore a new sense of multilayered partnership in the
search for the peaceful resolution of conflicts in Africa. As the total number of conflicts on the continent has
been significantly reduced in the past decade, there is widespread recognition of the opportunities for a more
stable and peaceful future for Africa. But there is also a profound awareness of the fragility of recent peace
agreements, whether in Kenya, Liberia, or Côte d’Ivoire. Furthermore, continued violence in the Sudan, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zimbabwe; the long absence of a viable central government in Somalia;
and continued tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea—to name only a few cases—reflect the legacy of
unresolved historic disputes and ongoing power struggles...The southern African region is now
generally defined in political terms as
those countries that are members of the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) (the geographic
definition is usually somewhat more
limited). Currently there are fifteen
member states of the SADC: Angola,
Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe.
These countries are disparate in many
ways: they vary greatly in size, population,
and levels of economic growth, and
include some of the poorest countries in
the world, but also some of the richest in
Africa. Six of them are landlocked; two of
them are Indian Ocean islands. They
share a common history of colonization—variously
involving French, British, Belgian, and German
imperial powers—and this continues to impact
significantly on the nature of governance and
politics in the region. Many, but not all, of the
countries of the region experienced periods of
European settler colonialism, resulting in armed
liberation struggles for independence. Several of
them also endured apartheid or various forms of
racial segregation and oppression as a result of that
history of settler colonialism.
Conflict and war has marked the region considerably,
particularly conflicts over apartheid and
colonialism, which engulfed most of southern
Africa and led to millions of deaths. Angola and
Mozambique suffered further from post-independence
civil wars, fueled in part by South Africa and
Rhodesia. After a bloody civil war following the
collapse of Mobutu Sese-Seko’s authoritarian
regime in the DRC in the second half of the 1990s,
however, the region is, for the first time in forty
years, almost completely at peace, except for
residual conflicts in the east of the DRC.
Nevertheless, there remain profound threats to
human and state security, many of them fueled by
poverty, marginalization, and the weakness of
states....
June 1, 2006
Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
Human security is the dominant discourse within international, regional
and sub-regional organisations tasked with security and development. It
has displaced the traditional state security paradigm with its preoccupation
with protecting national interests and state borders through the projection of
power. Although the basic tenets that constitute the human security paradigm
can be traced to various alternative approaches voiced on development and
security, it was the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP)
Human Development Report of 1994 that gave concrete expression to, and
was later used to popularise, this approach to security. That report, drawing
on the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, employed the phrase
xe2x80x98freedom from want and freedom from fear' to advocate a people-centred
approach to security, to link development to security, and to broaden both
the identification of possible threats and the actors responsible for producing
and resolving insecurity.
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has integrated
the human security approach into its constructions of, and policy
frameworks for, peace and security. Southern Africa, a region defined by
its anti-colonial and civil wars, is undoubtedly enjoying an unprecedented
measure of peace and stability, despite continued tensions in Zimbabwe,
Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Peace agreements
in Mozambique, South Africa, Angola and the DRC created an enabling
environment for democratisation and development to take root. However,
the xe2x80x98peace dividend' has yet to materialise for the vast majority of
citizens in Southern Africa. The road map for transforming these states
and the everyday lives of their citizenry has been drafted in the many protocols, policies and strategic frameworks, and much of the institutional
apparatus is already in place. Yet, there remains a marked disjuncture
between the region's goals and aspirations, and the implementation and/or
outcomes thereof. The often-stated reasons for this are lack of capacity,
resources and political will. However, in the absence of contextualisation,
these reasons remain vague and, therefore, without the specificities
for redress.
This monograph broadly sets out to (1) unpack the conceptual, methodological
and institutional issues that emerge from the adoption of a human security
perspective; (2) indicate some of the major human security challenges
confronting Southern Africa and; (3) highlight the implications for policy
research and capacity-building in the region....
Lesotho 
