Creative Approaches to Managing Conflict in Africa: Findings from USIP-Funded Projects

摘要

The purpose of this essay is to share some lessons of projects which have identified or implemented innovative approaches to managing Africa's conflicts, and examine their potential applicability to other conflicts there or elsewhere. The need for innovative approaches to managing conflict in Africa is immediately evident from daily headlines about war and killings in such countries as Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Sudan, Zaire, and Somalia, and growing tensions in others such as Nigeria. In assessing the state of war and peace in Africa one must, however, balance the daily tragedies in these countries with the impressive achievements of peace and increasing normalcy in others like South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Uganda, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe. The fact that there are remarkable stories of successful peacemaking in many African countries helps to remind the predictors of continent-wide chaos and tragedy that warring African countries are not the norm. This publication identifies some programs, projects, and interventions that have succeeded, and indicates the wide applicability of some. Lessons are drawn from each case about how either to replicate successes or turn past failures into future success.