Work to achieve Pan Africanism ideals-Mumuni, Saturday, October 22, 2011, pg 13
AFRICAN countries can no longer remain indifferent to the suffering and plight of their neighbours if the ideals of Pan Africanism is to be realised, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Mohammed Mumuni, has said.
He said a true expression of Pan-Africanism could be achieved when member states of the AU and societies in Africa regarded peace, security and the well-being of their neighbours as fundamentally intertwined with theirs.
The Foreign Minister was speaking in Accra at the opening of a two-day experience-sharing workshop on ‘Improving West African Capacities in Mediation and Peace Process organised by the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre.
The CMI is an independent non-profit organisation, working to resolve conflict and to build sustainable peace.
The workshop brought together experts in peace building from ECOWAS countries who would share experiences on past and recent mediation and peace processses in selected West African countries in a manner that allowed participants to reflect on achievement and existing challenges.
Despite many encouraging developments in Africa in recent years, political instability remains a major headache in all regions of the continent, slowing down economic growth, and negatively affecting the people’s well being.
While there are still a number of unresolved conflicts on the continent, with many of
them rooted in unequal distribution of power and resources, some of the recent peace agreements have not been implemented, leaving seeds of mistrust within the structures of the society.
But Mr Mumuni noted that the establishment of the African Union had transformed Africa’s approach to conflict management on the African continent, and admitted there still remained some challenges.
The advent of the AU, he stated marked a paradigm shift from prior practice on non-interference and non-intervention to the implementation of a policy of non-indifference which is required to generate and sustain a political will to address crisis situations on the continent.
He noted that a very important feature of the instruments which constituted the peace and security was diplomacy and mediation but stated that “the notion of mediation as primarily a diplomatic activity needed to be challenged.”
“Diplomats are not the only possible mediators. Thus limiting possible mediators to only one category of actors (state and intergovernmental diplomats) is not judicious and appropriate.”
“International mediation needs to be mainstream and incorporate non-official mediators, especially those with sustained presence in conflict zones and established communication channels with protagonists into the peace process,” he stated.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr James Victor Gbeho, in a keynote address read on his behalf said after more than twenty years of involvement in mediations and peace processes within the region, ECOWAS had been able to build impressive structures for peace, security and stability in West Africa.
The regional body, Mr Gbeho stated had in place legal documents, structures and procedures as reference materials for its activities, citing the 1999 Protocol relating to the Mechanisms for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and security as an example.
The document addresses peace-building in a region notorious for rampant conflict situations, with peace, security and political stability as its key components.
The West African sub-region has been, for the last two decades, one of the most conflict-prone areas of the world. The region has witnessed three of the most violent civil wars in contemporary African political history.
In view of that, the Executive Director of the CMI, Ms Tuija Talvitie, said notwithstanding some recent achievements, the persistence of low and high risk intensity conflicts in West Africa required the development of preventive diplomacy in the region.
She, however, commended, The United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) and ECOWAS as well as many civil society organisations for their support for preventive diplomacy and peace mdiation advocacy.
The CMI, Ms Talvitie said had embarked on a three-year project, titled Improving West African Capacities in Mediation and Peace Process from 2011-2013 to further build expertise in peace-building in the region.
He said a true expression of Pan-Africanism could be achieved when member states of the AU and societies in Africa regarded peace, security and the well-being of their neighbours as fundamentally intertwined with theirs.
The Foreign Minister was speaking in Accra at the opening of a two-day experience-sharing workshop on ‘Improving West African Capacities in Mediation and Peace Process organised by the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre.
The CMI is an independent non-profit organisation, working to resolve conflict and to build sustainable peace.
The workshop brought together experts in peace building from ECOWAS countries who would share experiences on past and recent mediation and peace processses in selected West African countries in a manner that allowed participants to reflect on achievement and existing challenges.
Despite many encouraging developments in Africa in recent years, political instability remains a major headache in all regions of the continent, slowing down economic growth, and negatively affecting the people’s well being.
While there are still a number of unresolved conflicts on the continent, with many of
them rooted in unequal distribution of power and resources, some of the recent peace agreements have not been implemented, leaving seeds of mistrust within the structures of the society.
But Mr Mumuni noted that the establishment of the African Union had transformed Africa’s approach to conflict management on the African continent, and admitted there still remained some challenges.
The advent of the AU, he stated marked a paradigm shift from prior practice on non-interference and non-intervention to the implementation of a policy of non-indifference which is required to generate and sustain a political will to address crisis situations on the continent.
He noted that a very important feature of the instruments which constituted the peace and security was diplomacy and mediation but stated that “the notion of mediation as primarily a diplomatic activity needed to be challenged.”
“Diplomats are not the only possible mediators. Thus limiting possible mediators to only one category of actors (state and intergovernmental diplomats) is not judicious and appropriate.”
“International mediation needs to be mainstream and incorporate non-official mediators, especially those with sustained presence in conflict zones and established communication channels with protagonists into the peace process,” he stated.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr James Victor Gbeho, in a keynote address read on his behalf said after more than twenty years of involvement in mediations and peace processes within the region, ECOWAS had been able to build impressive structures for peace, security and stability in West Africa.
The regional body, Mr Gbeho stated had in place legal documents, structures and procedures as reference materials for its activities, citing the 1999 Protocol relating to the Mechanisms for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and security as an example.
The document addresses peace-building in a region notorious for rampant conflict situations, with peace, security and political stability as its key components.
The West African sub-region has been, for the last two decades, one of the most conflict-prone areas of the world. The region has witnessed three of the most violent civil wars in contemporary African political history.
In view of that, the Executive Director of the CMI, Ms Tuija Talvitie, said notwithstanding some recent achievements, the persistence of low and high risk intensity conflicts in West Africa required the development of preventive diplomacy in the region.
She, however, commended, The United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) and ECOWAS as well as many civil society organisations for their support for preventive diplomacy and peace mdiation advocacy.
The CMI, Ms Talvitie said had embarked on a three-year project, titled Improving West African Capacities in Mediation and Peace Process from 2011-2013 to further build expertise in peace-building in the region.
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