This concluding module aims to help participants reflect
critically on the application of "lessons learned”; first, for themselves as
individual participants; and second, "community of practitioners” who desire
better ways of scaling-up the capacity of their respective institutions to
contribute to managing peace and security challenges in Africa. Read more...
- Teacher: Martin Rupiya
- Teacher: Charles Ukeje
Here you will find general information about the program as well as general document and audio/video repositories for the program.
- Teacher: Joao Gomes Porto
In this module participants will be able to understand conceptual and theoretical approaches to security and peace studies; examine the various patterns of violent conflicts in Africa; develop a critical understanding of how and why violent conflicts break out in Africa; evaluate and apply various theories of peace and security studies; understand the transformational impact — for better or worse — of violent conflict on women, children and society in Africa; map out the occurrence of conflict and their actors; Identify conflict management and resolution institutions at national, regional and continental levels; Understand and demonstrate how those institutions function; Formulate broad, exploratory and inquisitive perspectives that challenge mainstream and easy assumptions, interpretations and representations and Begin understanding the complex dimensions (historical, political, economic, and social) of the crisis in the DRC.
- Teacher: Joao Gomes Porto
Following the introduction to violent conflicts in Africa provided in Module 1, Module 2 explores the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the aim of enabling participants to appreciate – in theory and practice – the complexity of causes, dynamics and consequences of violent conflict. Conflicts, and in particular violent conflicts, are above all dynamic, multi-level and multi-causal processes and demand from the observer/analyst an exploratory and inquisitive mindset as well as familiarity in the use of conflict analysis concepts, frameworks and tools. By focusing participants’ attention on a highly complex, protracted, long duration conflict such as that in the DRC, Module 2 is aimed at exposing the challenges and opportunities of developing a careful, well-researched and grounded understanding of violent conflicts characterized by multi-level causes, dynamics and associated factors. But above all, Module 2 is designed to give participants the time, resources and structured learning environment to deepen their understanding of the MPSA’s case-study, the DRC.
Following participants’ report back on their distance assignments, the Module begins with four days entirely dedicated to exploring, discussing and reflecting on the DRC’s colonial and post-colonial history, the eruption of civil internationalized war in the mid-1990s and the second war of 1998 (known as Africa’s World War) and initial attempts at peacemaking and peace-keeping in the country. With the support of an expert/resource person, participants will then have a chance to apply a select number of conflict analysis frameworks and tools to understanding and explaining conflict in the DRC (in preparation for the comprehensive conflict assessment exercise that will be undertaken in Module 3). This will include conflict and cooperation timelines, gathering and analyzing proximate data, actor analysis and conflict mapping. Week two of this module will focus on the current situation in the DRC, particularly on the continuing insecurity in the East of the country and discuss key themes with relevance to DRC such as citizenship, elections and the extension of state administration, SSR, civil military relations and the formation of the FARDC, and finally, the media.
- Teacher: Joao Gomes Porto
In week 1 of this module, and under the guidance and support of an expert resource person, participants will work as a team to apply, test and reflect upon the practice of strategic conflict assessments. Strengthened by their knowledge and understanding of the DRC case-study provided in Module 2, participants will now zoom in on North Kivu and produce a written conflict assessment report as well as verbal briefing on the situation in the Province of the DRC. As will be further explained below, participants will undertake this assessment as a team for the duration of week 1 of the module. In this exercise, the module will make use of strategic conflict assessment frameworks (SCAs) such as the “Strategic Conflict Assessment Methodology” developed by Jonathan Goodhand, Tony Vaux and Robert Walker for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the “Guidelines for Conflict Analysis for Project Planning and Management” produced by Manuela Leonhardt for the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ); the “Conflict Analysis Framework” produced by the Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction Team of the World Bank; or the UN’s Inter-Agency “Framework for Conflict Analysis in Transition Situations”.
Yet, this module is not limited to the production of a strategic conflict assessment of North Kivu. Strategic conflict assessments are usually conducted to produce stand-alone analyses which tend not to be part of a larger and regular cycle of reporting, assessment and policy/response options formulation. Usually, this type of assessment is carried out once a crisis situation has already arisen and the policy advice derived from such an exercise is singular in the sense that there are no systematic follow-up assessments.
In week 2, this module goes further in exploring conflict analysis and assessment in the context of on going, 24/7 conflict prevention, management and resolution by Africa’s regional and sub-regional organizations. How does one move from a stand-alone assessment to a system capable of on-going monitoring and analysis that delivers some level of anticipation/predictive capability of violent conflict and yet does not loose the comprehensiveness of assessment methodologies? What types of indicators should be used? What types of data are needed? What is the expertise needed for staff engaged in conflict analysis and early warning systems? What are the characteristics of existing early warning systems in Africa?
To address these issues, week 2 will depart from the North Kivu strategic conflict assessment to introduce early warning systems by using the rich, unique experience of African organizations in developing these systems. Particular attention will be given to existing and functioning Early Warning Systems such as the AU’s Continental Early Warning System (CEWS), ECOWAS’ ECOWARN, and IGAD’s CEWARN (among others) and where possible, staff of these organizations will participate in the course. Participants will visit both the AU headquarters as well as CEWARN’s office in Addis Ababa.
- Teacher: Joao Gomes Porto
Module 4 is designed to equip students with the ability to critically and comprehensively, analyze, reflect and discuss, complex and multifaceted conflict environments without losing sight of the broad range of practical, institutional and theoretical mechanisms of intervention available in the peace and security arena. The Module focuses, specifically on the various types of third-party “soft-power” intervention mechanism that are relied upon, short of Peace and Security Operations (PSO). While the full retinue of hard and soft options and mechanisms for intervention where employed in the Eastern Congo towards the M23 and other actors challenge, the tendency is to view the contribution of the blazing guns and cacophony of war, associated with the UN Stabilization Operation Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) or the 2013 established Intervention (Neutral) Brigade at the expense of active diplomacy and “soft power” approach that has ultimately contributed to some of the results witnessed so far, challenging the multifaceted aspects of the politics of the country and sub-region; the political economy of precious minerals in the Kivus and finally, the tensions, manifest between the AUs RECs - SADC and EAC (and more broadly, ICGLR)?
- Teacher: Joao Gomes Porto