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Civil SocietyDebating IdeasHorn of AfricaPan AfricanismPeace ProcessesRegionalism

What Do Policymakers in the Horn of Africa Need to Know about Peace?

By Yodit Lemma
March 26, 2021
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Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

Mural in Khartoum, Sudan post the revolution depicting communal drawings of peace, justice and democracy. Credit: Raga Makawi

 

In any society, peace serves as a catalyst for national and individual transformation and progress. With it comes a more equitable distribution of power and resources, justice, reconciliation, healing and finally opportunities for growth and development. No other region in Africa has been marred with protracted conflict in the same way as the Horn of Africa region has. Each country in this volatile region has endured, or is experiencing, war and its consequences. Each country has at minimum one or two peace agreements within or beyond its borders, yet these agreements have not borne the kind of transformation that peace promises. In fact, what jointly characterizes countries in the Horn are: unimplemented peace agreements, high numbers of unaddressed human rights violations, poverty, high rates of youth unemployment, radicalization, unrest and fragile political transitions. Recent geo-politics related to Red Sea and Nile River negotiations also impacts or puts at risk the full realization of peace in the region.

In order to shift the current trend, policymakers in the Horn need to develop a joint monitoring mechanism that can be adopted and shared by governments in order to hold signatories to peace agreements accountable for the full implementation of agreements and to allow the African Union (AU) to enforce punitive measures for failures to comply. Policymakers should also encourage donors and AU member states to channel funds through the AU Peace Fund, not only to support peace operations but also to be able to fully finance mediation and preventative diplomacy efforts. Last but not least, interventions to resolve conflict in the countries of the Horn must be tailor-made to the historical, cultural, religious and political context at hand, in order to develop best practices that work for nations in the Horn.

 

Listen to Yodit Leema’s short audio file with recommendations to policymakers on the possibilities and limitations of achieving peace in the Horn of Africa:

https://africanarguments.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2-Yodit-RECUT.mp3

 

Tagscivil societycivil society dialogue seriesHorn of AfricaPeace AgreementPeacebuildingregionalism
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Yodit Lemma

Yodit Lemma holds an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS University of London and a BA in International Relations from Agnes Scott College. She has over 15 years of experience working in the area of political and conflict analysis, as well as peace mediation, gender and insecurity in East Africa and the Horn of Africa. Prior to joining the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), where she currently serves as the Senior Program Manager for the Horn of Africa, managing mediation projects in Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan, Yodit managed the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) project for Sudan and South Sudan and served as the Regional Conflict, Gender and Insecurities Policy Advisor for Oxfam’s Regional Horn and Central Africa office. In 2012, she worked as a Peace Mediation consultant on South Sudan for HD. Prior to that, she had worked as Political Reporting Officer for the United Nations Mission to South Sudan (UNMISS), during which time she reported on the Lord’s Resistance Army and worked on local reconciliation efforts in Western Equatoria State. From 2010-11, and 2007-08, Yodit also served as the Special Assistant to the UN Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General for Sudan, based in Khartoum. Before that she was a Project Officer with HD’s Africa Regional Office working primarily on electoral dispute resolution efforts in Somaliland as well as gender and mediation across Africa.

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Debating Ideas is a new section run separately from the main African Arguments site. It aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond.

It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

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