Summary Report of an International Conference entitled “Towards an African Conflict Prevention Strategy”

The report details a 2009 conference in Addis Ababa focused on structural and operational conflict prevention in Africa. Key discussions included the role of civil society in early warning, the necessity of integrating traditional and modern institutions, and the challenges of political will. The conference highlighted the ECOWAS framework and IGAD's counter-terrorism efforts, while concluding with recommendations to harmonize prevention standards and strengthen partnerships between the AU, RECs, and civil society.

• Structural sources of conflict in African states include state fragility, power structures, and weak institutional foundations. There is a noted need to integrate traditional indigenous institutions with modern westernized institutions, though this process faces inherent challenges.
• Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) possess a comparative advantage in conflict prevention because their grassroots presence allows them to detect threats to stability at an early stage. However, their effectiveness is hindered by government isolation, limited capacity, and geographic constraints.
• There is a perceived lack of political will among both African governments and the international community to proactively prevent conflicts. International bodies like the UN, AU, and EU are described as spending more on addressing the effects of conflicts than on preventing them, while political leaders are often more reactive and focused on short-term projects for re-election.
• The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) utilizes counter-terrorism as a conflict prevention tool through the ICPAT program, which focuses on five components: judicial measures, interdepartmental cooperation, border control, training/best practices, and management/collaboration.
• NEPAD has established a three-phase framework for post-conflict reconstruction and development: a post-conflict reconstruction phase (1-2 years), a transitional phase (2-3 years), and a sustainable development stage (up to 10 years).

APA

Institute for Security Studies (2009). Summary Report of an International Conference entitled “Towards an African Conflict Prevention Strategy”. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ISPIREP.PDF

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Summary Report of an International Conference entitled “Towards an African Conflict Prevention Strategy”. 2009. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ISPIREP.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Summary Report of an International Conference entitled “Towards an African Conflict Prevention Strategy” |date=March 2009 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ISPIREP.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudies2009summary, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Summary Report of an International Conference entitled “Towards an African Conflict Prevention Strategy”}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2009}, month = mar, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ISPIREP.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }