July 21, 2011
International Monetary Fund

Abstract:

This paper identifies the factors linked to cross-country differentials in growth performance in the aftermath of social conflict for 30 sub-Saharan African countries using panel data techniques. Our results show that changes in the terms of trade are the most important correlate of economic performance in post-conflict environments. This variable is typically associated with an increase in the marginal probability of positive economic performance by about 30 percent. Institutional quality emerges as the second most important factor. Foreign aid is shown to have very limited ability to explain differentials in growth performance, and other policy variables such as trade openness are not found to have a statistically significant effect. The results suggest that exogenous factors ("luck") are an important factor in post-conflict recovery. They also highlight the importance in post-conflict settings of policies to mitigate the macroeconomic impact of terms of trade volatility (including countercyclical macroeconomic policies and innovative financing instruments) and of policies to promote export diversification....

December 9, 2009
Conflict, Security and Development // Routledge

Abstract:

In recent years, the potential security threat posed by climate change has caught the world’s political imagination, generating a perceptible shift in the way that a growing number of decision-makers in the North and the South are talking about the subject. The African Union, in a January 2007 decision, expressed grave concern about the vulnerability of Africa’s ‘socio-economic and productive systems to climate change and variability and to the continent’s low mitigation and response capacities’. The European Security Strategy predicts that climate change will aggravate competition for natural resources, and likely increase conflict and migratory movements in various regions. Meanwhile, climate change has become a core foreign policy priority of many governments, including the new administration’s programme in the US, a move that is rationalised, at least in part, by the security threat it presents. This paper explores the development of conceptualisations of environment and security that influence current discussions over the potential impacts of climate change on security. To illustrate, we devote particular attention to the ways in which West Africa is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and draw upon recent empirical evidence and climate change scenario planning research from two West African countries: Ghana and Burkina Faso....

September 24, 2008
Institute for Security Studies // African Security Review

Abstract:

Over the past decades, the way we talk about climate change has evolved. Traditionally seen as an environmental and an energy issue, climate change is now also being cast as a threat to international peace and security. Analysts argue that climate change will exacerbate existing tensions and triggers new conflicts by redrawing the maps of water availability, food security, disease prevalence, coastal boundaries and population distribution. The security implications of climate change have become the subject of unprecedented international attention; in 2007 the focus of a Security Council debate and the Nobel Peace prize. There have been some attempts to construct scenarios of the security implications of climate change at a global scale. But the country-level security impacts of climate change have been lost in the midst of the political rhetoric. Local experts in the subject countries are rarely consulted. In this article for the September 2008 edition of the African Security Review, published quarterly by the Institute for Security Studies, Africa’s leading human security research institution, Oli Brown and Alec Crawford draw on their fieldwork in Ghana and Burkina Faso to see to what extent the links that have been hypothesized reflect a realistic future for two different countries in West Africa as the impacts of climate change gather pace. KEY FINDINGS: 1. Ghana and Burkina Faso already face considerable development challenges from existing economic, population and environmental stresses. 2. Climate change is not new to West Africa. West Africa in general and the Sahelian region in particular are characterized by some of the most variable climates on the planet. 3. Future climate change will likely make many current development challenges more complex and urgent. 4. There are links between climate change and security in the region. However, there is little research that has managed to construct an empirical link between climate change and conflict in the region (or, for that matter, anywhere else). 5. Climate change could exacerbate existing, latent tensions in Ghana and Burkina Faso. 6. But only in the extreme scenarios does climate change begin to present a determining factor in future economic and political instability. KEY RECOMMENDATION: Adaptation needs to focus on the full range of development problems affecting countries. Adaptation to climate change clearly needs to be integrated within wider plans for development assistance, and the additional costs for that adaptation need to be funded with “new money” so as not to undercut development priorities elsewhere....

April 4, 2008
African Studies Quarterly

Abstract:

An analysis of the imagery on postage stamps suggests that regimes in Sudan and Burkina Faso have pursued very different strategies in representing the nation. Sudan’s stamps focus on the political center and dominant elite (current regime, Khartoum politicians, and Arab and Islamic identity) while Burkina Faso’s stamps focus on society (artists, multiple ethnic groups, and development). Sudan’s stamps build an image of the nation as being about the northern-dominated regime in Khartoum (whether military or parliamentary); Burkina Faso’s stamps project an image of the nation as multi-ethnic and development-oriented....

June 1, 2006
Sciences Po // Center For Peace And Human Security

Abstract:

Situated in between Ghana and Benin, with a coastline of no more than 56km, Togo is one of Africa's smallest countries. However, what has habitually been a little talked about West African nation holds a long history of political unrest and has recently entered into a phase of instability in the beginning of 2005. Civil society members and organizations are now regrouped in the WANEP network, (West African Network for Peacebuilding) in a joint effort to set a national agenda toward reconciliation, peace and security and lead the way in facing Togo's unprecedented public health, development and education challenges....

July 13, 2006
Project on International Courts and Tribunals // African International Courts and Tribunals

Abstract:

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS/CEDEAO) is well known for its military intervention in Liberia and Sierra Leone. ECOWAS was created in 1975 to replace the Customs Union of West African States originally created in 1959 to redistribute customs duties collected by the coastal states of West Africa. The Treaty on the Economic Community of West African States was revised at the Cotonou Summit of July 1993 to replace the inexistent Tribunal originally envisioned with a Community Court of Justice....

July 13, 2006
Project on International Courts and Tribunals // African International Courts and Tribunals

Abstract:

The Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA) is the court of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), one of the most successful regional legal harmonization efforts on the Continent. Unlike the other continental regional integration groups, OHADA does not seek to conform national law to an overarching treaty and successive regulations and directives, which allow national legislature some leeway. Instead, OHADA uses the integration method of issuing binding uniform acts that automatically supercede all prior and future inconsistent national laws. With the goal of creating a secure, simple and modern legal framework for the conduct of business in Africa, OHADA has issued eight uniform acts on general commercial law, commercial companies and economic interest groups, securities, arbitration, simplified recovery procedures and measures of execution, collective insolvency and accounting....

July 13, 2006
Project on International Courts and Tribunals // African International Courts and Tribunals

Abstract:

The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) was established when the CFA was devalued in order to ensure coherent monetary and economic policy among the states of the CFA zone. The Court of Justice is intended to assist in the enforcement of that coherence. The Court of Justice, alongside the Court of Auditors, functions as the juridical arm of WAEMU, with automatic jurisdiction over all Member States of the Union. Avoiding the perennial delays seen in the entry into force of the Protocol Establishing the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Treaty provided that the Protocol on the Court would be an integral part of the Treaty with no need for ratifications. Addressing further the Continental problem of implementation, the Treaty required that the Court come into being within six months of the Treaty entering into force. With financial help from France and the European Union, these Treaty provisions were fulfilled and the first judges of the Court were sworn in on January 27, 1985. Not meeting the three month deadline in the Treaty, the judges fully operationalized the Court by promulgating #the Rules of Procedure in July 1986. In 1997, the addition of Guinea Bissau to WAEMU resulted in the expansion of the bench to nine judges. The Additional Act that initiating this expansion also included the specification that judges on the Court are chosen from among those persons guaranteeing independence and juridical competence, emphasizing that the Court is to be wholly separate from the political sphere of the Union....

June 1, 2006
Energy Information Administration

Abstract:

Regional leaders created the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on May 28, 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria. ECOWAS is comprised of 15 countries, which include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire , The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria , Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The leaders established ECOWAS to promote regional integration and economic growth in West Africa, as well as to create a monetary union in the region. However, ECOWAS has encountered problems in the process of regional integration including: political instability and lack of good governance that has plagued many member countries, the insufficient diversification of national economies, the absence of reliable infrastructure, and the multiplicity of organizations for regional integration with the same objectives....

October 5, 2005
Globalsecurity.org

Abstract:

Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta, achieved self-government in 1958, and full independence in 1960 from France. Burkina Faso's high population density and limited natural resources haved resulted in poor economic prospects for the majority of its citizens. Repeated military coups during the 1970s and 1980s were followed by multiparty elections in the early 1990s. Recent unrest in Cote d'Ivoire and northern Ghana has hindered the ability of several hundred thousand seasonal Burkinabe farm workers to find employment in neighboring countries. Burkina Faso has had an extremely unstable history since its independence and multiple coups have been staged. Thefirst military coup occurred in 1966, but then succumbed to another coup in 1978, which deposed the then President Yaméogo, suspended the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly, and placed Lt. Col. Sangoulé Lamizana at the head of a government, which was composed of senior army officers. ...

March 21, 2005


Abstract:

Dans la perspective d'un développement durable, en vue d'un monde plus juste et équitable, le Centre de solidarité internationale (CSI) travaille ici à mettre en xc5x93uvre des actions de solidarité internationale avec la population du Saguenay - Lac-St-Jean et à réaliser un travail d'ouverture sur le monde, notamment auprxc3xa8s des jeunes et outre-mer à soutenir des programmes de coopération qui #permettent à des communautés de pays du Sud d'acquérir les moyens techniques, matériels et humains pour prendre en charge leur propre développement....

October 22, 2004


Abstract:

Website of the Africa Union.

August 26, 2004


Abstract:

After a feasibility study conducted throughout the sub-region, representatives of seven West African countries in 1998 officially launched WANEP in Accra Ghana. They created WANEP as a mechanism to harness peacebuilding initiatives and to strengthen collective interventions that were already bearing good fruits in Liberia, the Northern Region of Ghana, and Sierra Leone.

August 11, 2011
The Middle East Institute

Abstract:

This Policy Brief examines the real and imagined influence of al-Qa‘ida in North Africa and the Sahel. Despite a perception of the transnationalization of terrorist movements in North Africa under al-Qa‘ida’s banner, robust evidence of an effective al-Qa‘ida’s expansion in the Maghreb and the Sahara/Sahel region remains elusive at best. Rather, doubts about al-Qa‘ida’s actual threat and the efficacy of international response in the context of pervasive state failure in the Sahel raise questions regarding the policy objectives of US-led counter-terrorism in the region....

July 8, 2011
Chatham House

Abstract:

I consider it a singular honour to have been invited today by Chatham House to address this august forum. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which I represent, is a regional organisation which has, over the years, gained your attention only for the unfortunate reasons of state implosion and instability caused by bad governance and marginalisation. I therefore welcome the opportunity to throw further light on its objectives, challenges, and achievements, which factors have effectively brought together fifteen West African states in the enterprise of improving upon the living standards of 230 million people as well as integrating them.

The term ‘Chatham House Rule’ is today an internationally-accepted cliché that this Institute has contributed to international diplomacy discourse, a reference norm in rigorous and policy-oriented exchanges on global peace and security. I therefore view your invitation to lead today’s discourse about ‘Democracy in the context of Regional Integration in West Africa’ as an unique honour for me personally, and a recognition of ECOWAS as a leading brand in regional integration.

Ladies and gentlemen, the evolution of ECOWAS can only be properly understood against the backdrop of the fascinating history and circumstances of West Africa since establishing contact with the world beyond its borders. The fact that slavery, colonialism, as well as racial and economic marginalisation, had left an intrinsic yearning for freedom, unity and solidarity among peoples of African descent everywhere defines its wish to integrate its states and peoples....

May 24, 2011
Security Council Report

Abstract:

This special research report provides an analysis of a set of new issues that have been emerging in the West African subregion and possible implications for the Security Council in the coming year(s). It identifies some key emerging threats to peace and security in the 16-state subregion and their linkages to existing security challenges. The report points to a key feature: the fact that some of the new threats are essentially criminal rather than political in nature. However, it explains also the growing political and security implications. The report also highlights action already taken by the Council to recognise these threats and considers options available to the Council to tackle these issues going forward.

The raw material for the study was derived from literature research; field research in a number of countries in the West African subregion (including Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria); and interviews in the region with diplomats, government officials and officials of relevant international intergovernmental bodies (e.g. UN Office in West Africa or UNOWA, UN Office for Drugs and Crime or UNODC, the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS and the AU), NGOs and academics....

November 2, 2010
Institute for Security Studies // L'Institut d'Etudes de Sécurité

Abstract:

This paper aims to appraise and map the security challenges that have faced West African countries since independence with a special focus on the period after 1990. It also assesses the efforts made by various national, regional, continental and extra-African actors and makes suggestions on how the shortcomings in these efforts could be improved. An effort is made to show the evolution of at least some of the challenges over the years, in the hope that this could contribute to a better formulation of policy responses.

The study is based on extensive review of existing literature, complemented by field research in the region undertaken in July and August 2010, in addition to general familiarity with the region from many previous research visits on related subjects.

Without neglecting other issues that could be considered as security threats, and without attempting any hierarchical ordering of these threats, the paper focuses on the following six major issues: i) armed conflict, ii) military coups and unconstitutional changes of government; iii) mismanagement of electoral processes; iv) transnational criminality, particularly drug trafficking, terrorism and maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea; v) poverty and illiteracy; vi) climate change and environmental degradation....

October 27, 2010
Human Security Unit - Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Source // United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Abstract:

Over the last decade, the international community has been working toward a new and broader concept of security, drawing input from a number of governments, non-governmental organizations and civil society groups as well as scholars and other prominent individuals. This new concept—known as human security—calls on states to ensure the survival, livelihood and dignity of their inhabitants. At the same time, it encourages e≠orts to equip people to act more e≠ectively on their own behalf. Following the report by the Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, this booklet seeks to show practical applications of human security and give the concept a human face. Between March-June 2006, in preparation for this publication, the Human Security Unit, a freelance journalist and a team of photographers visited dozens of project sites, conducting hundreds of interviews with local staff and beneficiaries. From these many compelling initiatives, nine stories were selected that reflect the range of issues, regions and institutions involved in human security work around the globe. Human security represents a fundamentally new way of thinking about a range of contemporary challenges—from hunger, poverty and failing schools to armed conflict, forced migration and human tra≤cking. Because these issues are closely intertwined, human security emphasizes the need for multi-sectoral responses and collaboration among all stakeholders. Moreover, it aims to bridge the gaps between security, humanitarian assistance, human rights and development aid....