Peace, Conflict, and Development in Africa: A Reader
Publisher: University for Peace
Author(s): Erin McCandless and Tony Karbo
Date: 2011
Topics: Basic Services, Conflict Prevention, Gender, Governance, Land, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
The Africa Programme of the UN–affiliated University for Peace (UPEACE) is pleased to present Peace, Conflict, and Development in Africa: A Reader, another step in the effort to ameliorate Africa’s problem of access to practice- and policy-relevant scholarship and information that addresses the twin challenges of building sustainable peace and human development on the continent. It brings together historically important and more recent works from Africa and abroad that examine the role of political economy in conflicts and the methods and tools needed to bring about positive peace—meaning, peace that is more than the absence of violence, seeks to eliminate the root causes of conflict, offers social justice, builds respectful relationships, and results in self-sustaining institutions and capacities for enduring peace.
Peace, Conflict, and Development in Africa is aimed at those involved in building peace in ways that foster human-centred, inclusive development and at those working in the development and economic spheres who want to ensure that their work does no harm and actually supports and contributes to peace. It is also part of a broader effort to support the evolution of the emerging sub-field of peacebuilding and development, which must rise from a foundation of understanding and formulate coherent responses to issues as they emerge.1 In turn, this integrated field of the study and practice of peacebuilding and development stands to serve Africa by reminding practitioners, scholars, and students that the drive for peace should not marginalise the vital priority of human development or vice versa.