Session 2: Building peaceful, just and inclusive societies

The Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) and the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States ( OHRLLS) are co-organizing Session 2 of the Africa Regional Review meeting on the Implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for the decade 2011-2020.

Session 2, which is on “Building peaceful, just and inclusive societies", will be held on 23 February 2021 from 8:00am-9:45am NYT.

Session Objectives:

This session will shed light on how challenges of promoting peace and security and addressing pressing humanitarian needs are intertwined with those of pursuing sustainable development, especially in conflict-affected countries and/or emerging from conflict as well as in countries at risk of falling into conflict.

The session will also discuss the current landscape of international and regional support instruments in place to advance peace, security and development in the most vulnerable countries.

Discussions will offer a number of policy recommendations pertaining to the humanitarian-peace and development nexus in order to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies.

Session Format:

The session will be in the format of a panel discussion featuring five panelists and moderated by Ms. Cristina Duarte, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa. The session will take place virtually. 

Download the programme for the session.

Background and Context:

The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Africa, and Haiti, have made steady progress in implementing their commitments under the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) for LDCs for the decade 2011-2020.

According to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), African LDCs achieved steady, albeit modest, real average gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 3.9 percent in the period 2017 to 2020; slightly above the global average of 3.4 percent and Africa’s average of 3.5 percent.  A few African LDCs exhibited economic growth of 7 per cent or more in 2018. Some African LDCs are among the world’s top performers in terms of parliamentary seats held by women. Some African LDCs made progress in terms of good governance at all levels.

Against the backdrop of such strong commitment to the implementation of IPoA, several countries have faced various challenges towards advancing their development due to conflicts. Several African LDCs and Haiti witnessed new and re-emerging conflicts. Most of these conflicts in Africa have been intra-state in nature, albeit with regional or cross-border ramifications, and involving multiple actors or agents with varied goals, tactics and targets.

Countries in the Sahel, all of which are LDCs, are cases in point. The security situation in this sub-region has worsened since 2012. As the effects of climate change unfold across the Sahel, competition over scarce natural resources, including water and pasture has intensified, thus leading to rising inter-communal tensions. The combination of increased terrorist activity, triggered in large by the Libyan crisis, and inter-communal conflicts has resulted in unprecedented levels of violence.

Further, inequality, lack of social cohesion, marginalization, weak governance and the failure of transitional justice processes in many of these countries, have embedded a sense of injustice, including unequal access to resources.

The youth population faces challenges of unemployment or lack of economic opportunities. This, combined with increased access to information through the internet and social media, increases the risks of internal conflict.

In the meantime, perceived government failures in responding effectively to these growing crises have led to increased protests in several countries across the sub-region.

The deterioration of the security and political situation has gone hand-in-hand with high numbers of human casualties, increased fragility and political instability, all of which have caused severe humanitarian crises, and equally high levels of forced migration, internal displacement and growing inequalities and poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also put pressure on citizens’ trust in institutions, transparency and social cohesion, reinforcing the need for equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies during the fight against the virus, as well as in the recovery period.

The above developments have set in motion a dramatic reversal of hard-won development gains, while undermining the development prospects for decades to come in several LDCs. Indeed, evidence shows that conflict can lead to between  2%  to 4% and up to 8.4% in GDP loss if the conflict is severe[1]. Neighboring countries often suffer the burden of spillover effects from violent conflict by an annual decline of 1.4 percentage points in their GDP.

A growing number of African LDCs also face severe fiscal pressures while addressing their security situations. Countries in the Sahel region are, for instance, channeling 20% of their budget towards the defense and security needs, to the detriment of spending on human and social sectors. Amid increased security and defense spending, efforts to attend to large social and humanitarian needs are made all the more challenging by the lack of dedicated financial support instruments for low-income countries affected by conflicts and terrorism, both at the regional and global levels.

Further, African countries hit by natural disasters, such as the most recent Cyclone Idai that affected Madagascar, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019, saw a diversion of resources from long-term development projects to short-term emergency needs.

What is more, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has exacerbated the existing vulnerabilities of African LDCs and Haiti, and jeopardized the hard-won socio-economic and development gains. Indeed, their vulnerability to external shocks and conflicts has been demonstrated through the dramatic spillover effects of the COVID-19 crisis to all the sectors of the economies and the societies. With weak public health systems, the governments of African LDCs and Haiti, faced heavy fiscal space pressures due to increased spending in the fight against COVID-19, as well as social spending for large poor population.

At the same time, the governments’ revenue fell due to the global economic slowdown, global supply chains disruptions, commodity price shocks, loss of exports, reduction of investment and remittances, along with a rapid decrease in tourism.

Not only has the pandemic reversed the hard-won gains made by many African LDCs but it has also resulted in a new array of challenges to the implementation of the IPoA, while aggravating existing ones.

Building peaceful, just and inclusive societies in the aftermath of COVID-19 therefore requires a holistic and integrated approach with adequate and commensurate resources. This approach highlights close interlinkages among humanitarian aspects, peace, security and development.

These interlinkages feature prominently in global and Africa’s continental development frameworks. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union Agenda 2063,  emphasize that peace, security, development and humanitarian efforts are complementary and need to reinforce one another so as to respond to volatile situations in Africa and around the world.

In particular, Goal 16 of Agenda 2030 seeks to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” Similarly, Aspiration 4 of the AU Agenda 2063 emphasizes the critical role of peace, security and stability for sustainable development and inclusive growth to prevail in Africa.

In this regard, the Silencing the Guns initiative is one of the AU’s flagship programme promoting conflict prevention along the interlinkages among peace, security, development and humanitarian. To advance this initiative, African leaders adopted the AU theme for 2020: “Silencing the Guns - Creating a Conducive Environment for Sustainable Development in Africa.”   

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Secretary-General and the African Union Commission Chairperson appealed for a ceasefire, sustaining peace processes and critical peace operations with a view to avoid generating new tensions and freeing resources to fight the virus and its impacts.

Moreover, following the adoption of the New Way of Working (NWoW) at the 2016 Humanitarian Summit, recipient countries and development partners agreed to strengthen synergies between humanitarian and development efforts. Seven priority countries[2] in Africa are now implementing the New Way of Working. Other initiatives such as the Grand Bargain’s 2016 Too Important to Fail—Addressing the Humanitarian Financing Gap, and the OECD DAC Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (OECD 2019), among others are key policy frameworks and mechanisms put in place to adapt international support to the pressing needs along the nexus of humanitarian, peace, security and development.

Good governance at all levels, along with rapid and enhanced multilateral and regional efforts and greater cooperation at regional and sub-regional levels, are also fundamental to achieving peaceful, just and inclusive societies. By preventing and fighting against corruption along with improving public expenditure and financial management and by improving and expanding access to development and humanitarian financing, resources made available will be effectively channeled towards responding to external shocks and crises, while advancing sustainable development in African LDCs.

Register to attend the meeting.