Peacebuilding, Power, and Politics in Africa

5. The Role of the African Union, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, and African Development Bank in Postconflict Reconstruction and Peacebuilding

107 F I V E The Role of the African Union, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, and African Development Bank in Postconflict Reconstruction and Peacebuilding g i l b e r t m . k H A d i A g A l A t H e S e A r C H F o r e F F e C t i V e P e A C e b u i L d i n G S t r At e G i e S i n A F r i C A since the 1990s is animated by the need to find durable mechanisms that contribute to sustainable peace and development.1 despite these efforts, debates abound about how to rebuild states, the operational limitations of peacebuilding, and the consequences of external engagement in postconflict reconstruction.2 the African union (Au), the new Partnership for Africa’s development (nePAd), and the African development bank (Afdb), alongside multilateral institutions, have been at the center of intervention attempts to promote peacebuilding in complex political, social, and economic environments. in addition to dealing with differences among postconflict countries, African actors , just like international actors, have faced problems of sequencing humanitarian and development goals against the backdrop of limited internal and external resources. this chapter seeks to understand the roles of the Au, nePAd, and the Afdb in postconflict reconstruction and peacebuilding in Africa. the discussion is structured around three fundamental questions. first, how have the Au, nePAd, and the Afdb conceptualized the notions of postconflict reconstruction and peacebuilding? Second, what 108 GiLbert M. KHAdiAGALA strategies have these institutions adopted to deal with the challenges of peacebuilding in Africa? third, are ideas and approaches to peacebuilding in Africa different from global ones? Answers to these questions are instructive in gleaning insights into the involvement of these institutions in postconflict African countries and the consequences of this involvement. the chapter contends that postconflict reconstruction and peacebuilding roles are novel to continental institutions that are struggling with issues of weak resource and institutional capacity and multiple mandates. despite these weaknesses, however, continental initiatives remain critical in the mobilization of action and resources to complement international postconflict and peacebuilding efforts. Postconflict Assistance and Peacebuilding in Africa there have been significant debates about whether peacebuilding and postconflict reconstruction are complementary objectives. Aid agencies involved in humanitarian work, such as oxfam, international Alert, and doctors Without borders, initially resisted efforts to integrate peacebuilding into postconflict assistance because of what they perceived as the dangers of injecting political objectives into their strictly “neutral” and apolitical sectoral work in postconflict contexts.3 viewing their work in strictly technical terms, these aid agencies resisted the integration of overt political goals into their reconstruction and development projects because it seemed to violate one of the cardinal rules of foreign assistance.4 this skepticism has gradually given way to the recognition of the complementary nature of these objectives.this recognition stems from wide acknowledgment that the provision of security is an essential condition of peacebuilding and, furthermore, that the rebuilding of public institutions is a key to sustainable peace.5 Hence, successful political and governance transition must form the core part of any postconflict peacebuilding mission. over the past decade, the experiences of many African countries, such as Angola, burundi, the democratic republic of the Congo (drC), guinea, liberia, rwanda, and Sierra leone, have affirmed that sustainable peacebuilding occurs within a broad context of political and economic reforms. Proponents of peacebuilding throughout the 1990s documented the failures of conventional approaches and challenged the assumption that aid in postconflict settings could be separate from politics.6 in recent years, the thinking has gravitated toward the idea that postconflict contexts are distinct from conventional development 109 the African union, nePAd, and African development bank settings and thus require separate strategies that integrate peacebuilding into postconflict assistance.7 for instance, a number of donors, in particular the Canadian international development Agency (CidA) and the World bank, have developed peace and conflict impact assessments (PCiAs) in the planning and execution of “traditional” development projects, underscoring the increasing donor interest in funding peacebuilding undertakings. the PCiA is a means of systematically evaluating the positive and negative impacts of development projects on peace and conflict in conflict countries.8 Attempts to integrate peace and conflict concerns into development planning are particularly instructive in Africa, where civil wars have decimated economies, polities, and livelihoods, and where...