Postconflict peacebuilding and development in West Africa

In the wake of proliferating intra-state wars and violent conflicts in the 1990s, many war-torn countries in West Africa, especially Sierra Leone initiated frail peacebuilding processes, hoping to secure a more peaceful and stable development. The challenges such societies face are daunting, with competing challenges of restoring public infrastructure, designing new political arrangements and institutions, restoring security and addressing post-conflict trauma and restoring confidence among large parts of the population. Often these demands prove to be too burdensome in relation to the uncoordinated attitude of the major actors, explicating why the outcome of peace building process still remains a fragile undertaking with mixed results. Undertaking reconstruction process, must informed a collaborative effort of the national government, international donors and stakeholders geared towards addressing the origin of the conflict within the overreaching Millennium development framework. There is a clear imperative for this kind of partnership if the new attempts to build peace in post-conflict areas are to succeed.

Autorentext

Abiodun Fatai is an Assistant lecturer in the department of Political Science Faculty of Social Science, Lagos state University,Lagos Nigeia. He is currently on a Phd programme at the prestigious University of Ibadan Ibadan Nigeria.He has widely published in peer-reviewed journals and presented papers in several conference in Africa and Europe