Invisible Stakeholders

This concluding chapter of 'Invisible Stakeholders' argues that children and youth in Africa are not merely victims of conflict but active agents of change and transformation. The author contends that viewing them solely as victims obscures the dynamics of conflict and ignores how young people make choices that impact the trajectories of war. The text examines the socio-economic and political drivers of youth mobilization, the failure of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes, and the influence of global economic structures on African stability.

• Defining children and youth exclusively as victims provides an incomplete understanding of conflict dynamics and ignores their role as agents of change who make decisions impacting the nature of war.
• The distinction between 'children' and 'youth' is often blurred in Africa, as socio-economic and political environments frequently force children to assume adult responsibilities regardless of chronological age.
• A 'recruitment pool' of frustrated and disempowered young Africans is exploited by insurgents, political campaigners, and criminal networks, particularly as structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s closed off economic opportunities.
• Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) efforts have largely failed to alleviate the trauma, loss of education, and ongoing tensions experienced by young people in post-conflict African societies.
• There is a significant asymmetry between Africa's population structure—where more than half the population are children under 18—and the power relations in conflict analysis and policy development.
• African states often show a preference for signing global legal instruments, like the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), over regional ones like the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children (ACRWC), often for cosmetic reasons of international image.
• Global economic structures and neo-liberal policies imposed by the World Bank and IMF have contributed to a development crisis in Africa, fueling frustration and the militarisation of youth.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (n.d.). Invisible Stakeholders. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECONCLU.PDF

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Invisible Stakeholders. n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECONCLU.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Invisible Stakeholders |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECONCLU.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudiesndinvisible, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Invisible Stakeholders}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/INVISIBLECONCLU.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }