Resolving Election Related Conflicts in Africa. Role and Challenges of the National Peace Council of Ghana
Resolving Election Related Conflicts in Africa. Role and Challenges of the National Peace Council of Ghana

Author: Caeser Nibelli

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2020-02-21

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 3346118363

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Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: 3.00, , course: Msc Defence and International Politics, language: English, abstract: This study examines the causes of electoral conflicts in Ghana and Africa, and the role and challenges of the National Peace Council in resolving election-related conflicts. In many African countries, both the economic and political authorities are confiscated and held in the hands of some corrupt leaders who through the use of force control the destiny of their countries. Since the adoption of multiparty systems in some African countries, most elections have been tarnished by violence and by political antagonists who continue to question not only the fairness and the transparency of elections but also the validity of the electoral systems of their countries. Ghana’s elections for some time now have become violent resulting in disputes. A typical case of this situation was the 2012 elections which ended up in the Supreme Court as a dispute. In all of these conflicts, the role of the National Peace Council cannot be over-emphasized. The Council played an important role before, during and after elections. This contributed in the peace that the Ghana experienced during and after elections. In the light of the key role of the Council played in ensuring peace before, during and after elections, there are a number of challenges that confronted the Council. This study examines the specific role played by the National Peace Council (NPC) in ensuring peace in elections. The study discussed the challenges that affected the work of the Council such as limited funding to initiate activities and inadequate staff to help carry out its functions. The methodology adopted in this study is the qualitative case study approach which enabled the study to analyze the findings by relying mostly on secondary data to make its findings. Literatures from secondary data were reviewed to answer research questions. The findings of this study confirm that, the role played by the National Peace Council (NPC) yielded positive results in ensuring the peace of the country throughout the electoral period which other Africa countries can emulate to prevent election-related conflicts.

The State of Peacebuilding in Africa
The State of Peacebuilding in Africa

Author: Terence McNamee

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-11-02

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 3030466361

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This open access book on the state of peacebuilding in Africa brings together the work of distinguished scholars, practitioners, and decision makers to reflect on key experiences and lessons learned in peacebuilding in Africa over the past half century. The core themes addressed by the contributors include conflict prevention, mediation, and management; post-conflict reconstruction, justice and Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration; the role of women, religion, humanitarianism, grassroots organizations, and early warning systems; and the impact of global, regional, and continental bodies. The book's thematic chapters are complemented by six country/region case studies: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan/South Sudan, Mozambique and the Sahel/Mali. Each chapter concludes with a set of key lessons learned that could be used to inform the building of a more sustainable peace in Africa. The State of Peacebuilding in Africa was born out of the activities of the Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding (SVNP), a Carnegie-funded, continent-wide network of African organizations that works with the Wilson Center to bring African knowledge and perspectives to U.S., African, and international policy on peacebuilding in Africa. The research for this book was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Voting in Fear
Voting in Fear

Author: Dorina Akosua Oduraa Bekoe

Publisher: United States Institute of Peace Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781601271365

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Nine contributors offer pioneering work on the scope and nature of electoral violence in Africa; investigate the forms electoral violence takes; and analyze the factors that precipitate, reduce, and prevent violence. The book breaks new ground with findings from the only known dataset of electoral violence in sub-Saharan Africa, spanning 1990 to 2008. Specific case studies of electoral violence in countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria provide the context to further understanding the circumstances under which electoral violence takes place, recedes, or recurs.

Conflict Resolution in Africa
Conflict Resolution in Africa

Author: Francis M. Deng

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0815707185

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While dramatic changes are taking place on the international scene and among the major powers, Africa continues to suffer from a multitude of violent conflicts. The toll of these conflicts is monumental in terms of war damage to productivity, scarce resources diverted to armaments and military organizations, and the resulting insecurity, displacement, and destruction. At the same time, Africans, in response to internal demands as well as to international changes, have begun to focus their attention and energies on these problems and are trying innovative ways to resolve differences by nonviolent means. The outcomes of these attempts have urgent and complex implications for the future of the continent with respect to human rights, principles of democracy, and economic development. In this book, African, European, and U.S. experts examine these important issues and the prospects for conflict management and resolution in Africa. They review the scholarship in resolution in light of international changes now taking place. Addressing the undying, internal causes of conflict, they question whether global events will promote peace or threaten to unleash even more conflict. The authors focus their analysis on the issues involved in African conflicts and examine the areas in need of the most dramatic changes. They offer specific recommendations for dealing with current problems, but caution that unless policymakers confront the security situation in Africa, further destruction to national unity and political and economic stability is imminent. Case studies and themes for further, long-term research are recommended.

Issues in Ghana's Electoral Politics
Issues in Ghana's Electoral Politics

Author: Ninsin, Kwame A.

Publisher: CODESRIA

Published: 2017-05-05

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 2869786948

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Ghana attained independence in 1957. From 1992, when a new constitution came into force and established a new – democratic – framework for governing the country, elections have been organized every four years to choose the governing elites. The essays in this volume are about those elections because elections give meaning to the role of citizens in democratic governance. The chapters depart from the study of formal structures by which the electorate choose their representatives. They evaluate the institutional forms that representation take in the Ghanaian context, and study elections outside the specific institutional forms that according to democratic theory are necessary for arriving at the nature of the relationships that are formed between the voters and their representatives and the nature and quality of their contribution to the democratic process.

Pathways for Peace
Pathways for Peace

Author: United Nations;World Bank

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2018-04-13

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 1464811865

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Violent conflicts today are complex and increasingly protracted, involving more nonstate groups and regional and international actors. It is estimated that by 2030—the horizon set by the international community for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals—more than half of the world’s poor will be living in countries affected by high levels of violence. Information and communication technology, population movements, and climate change are also creating shared risks that must be managed at both national and international levels. Pathways for Peace is a joint United Nations†“World Bank Group study that originates from the conviction that the international community’s attention must urgently be refocused on prevention. A scaled-up system for preventive action would save between US$5 billion and US$70 billion per year, which could be reinvested in reducing poverty and improving the well-being of populations. The study aims to improve the way in which domestic development processes interact with security, diplomacy, mediation, and other efforts to prevent conflicts from becoming violent. It stresses the importance of grievances related to exclusion—from access to power, natural resources, security and justice, for example—that are at the root of many violent conflicts today. Based on a review of cases in which prevention has been successful, the study makes recommendations for countries facing emerging risks of violent conflict as well as for the international community. Development policies and programs must be a core part of preventive efforts; when risks are high or building up, inclusive solutions through dialogue, adapted macroeconomic policies, institutional reform, and redistributive policies are required. Inclusion is key, and preventive action needs to adopt a more people-centered approach that includes mainstreaming citizen engagement. Enhancing the participation of women and youth in decision making is fundamental to sustaining peace, as well as long-term policies to address the aspirations of women and young people.

African Conflicts and Informal Power
African Conflicts and Informal Power

Author: Mats Utas

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2012-09-13

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 1848138857

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In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.

Exploring Peace Formation
Exploring Peace Formation

Author: Kwesi Aning

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-04-17

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1317330854

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This volume examines the dynamics of socio-political order in post-colonial states across the Pacific Islands region and West Africa in order to elaborate on the processes and practices of peace formation. Drawing on field research and engaging with post-liberal conceptualisations of peacebuilding, this book investigates the interaction of a variety of actors and institutions involved in the provision of peace, security and justice in post-colonial states. The chapters analyse how different types of actors and institutions involved in peace formation engage in and are interpenetrated by a host of relations in the local arena, making ‘the local’ contested ground on which different discourses and praxes of peace, security and justice coexist and overlap. In the course of interactions, new and different forms of socio-political order emerge which are far from being captured through the familiar notions of a liberal peace and a Weberian ideal-type state. Rather, this volume investigates how (dis)order emerges as a result of interdependence among agents, thus laying open the fundamentally relational character of peace formation. This innovative relational, liminal and integrative understanding of peace formation has far-reaching consequences for internationally supported peacebuilding. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, peace studies, security studies, governance, development and IR.