South Africa’s peacebuilding and PCRD activities

The document assesses South Africa's strategic position in global development, arguing that the country can strengthen its peacebuilding and PCRD efforts in Africa by leveraging the IBSA Fund and the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB). It highlights the role of the newly established SADPA in coordinating these efforts while cautioning that South Africa must align its PCRD vision with the African Union and manage domestic perceptions of its outgoing aid.

• South Africa can enhance its peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction and development (PCRD) in Africa by utilizing its access to multilateral arrangements, specifically BRICS and IBSA.
• The South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA) was established to coordinate outgoing development cooperation, including peacebuilding and PCRD, but it currently lacks a specific definition of PCRD and needs to align its vision with the African Union (AU).
• The IBSA Fund provides a flexible vehicle for PCRD by targeting projects that contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), though its impact is limited by a small budget where each member contributes US$1 million annually.
• The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) offers significantly larger financial capacity than the IBSA Fund, with a starting capital of US$50 billion and a contingent reserve arrangement of US$100 billion, but its specific rationale for peacebuilding and PCRD remains unformulated.
• South Africa's previous engagements in peacebuilding and PCRD, such as in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have been criticized for a lack of sustainability, often exiting before PCRD activities were completed.
• South Africa must balance its international development ambitions with domestic realities, as its outgoing aid may be perceived as counter-intuitive given internal levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequality.

APA

Kok, N. (2014). South Africa’s peacebuilding and PCRD activities. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper267.pdf

Chicago

Kok, Naomi. South Africa’s peacebuilding and PCRD activities. Institute for Security Studies, 2014. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper267.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kok |first1=Naomi |title=South Africa’s peacebuilding and PCRD activities |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=September 2014 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper267.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kok2014south, author = {Kok, Naomi}, title = {{South Africa’s peacebuilding and PCRD activities}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2014}, month = sep, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper267.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }