Is Electoral Politics A New Source Of Human Insecurity In Africa?

Violence and conflicts have characterised electoral processes in a number of African countries since the mid-1990s and created an atmosphere of insecurity. The prevalence of such violence reflected a confluence of factors, including the intensification of the competition for access to the state, perceived as a channel of accumulation. This perception raised the stakes to an unprecedented level during elections as vanquished parties went every length to stake a claim to the spoils. Other factors inducing violence included the poor organisation of elections, government interference in the work of election management bodies (EMBs), the insatiable desire of some presidents to seek third terms in contravention of constitutionally mandated two terms, and in some cases because the electoral model excluded loosing parties from parliament. It is noted further that, contrary to Afro-pessimist claims, African countries are capable of credible elections but this is conditional on adequate attention being paid to critical elements in the electoral process, which rid the process of suspicion of fraud and irregularities

Africa’s Quest for Long-Term Development: Does NEPAD Provide the Necessary Policy Framework?

The evasive nature which characterizes Africa’s development is something familiar to all. Various ambitious development strategies, implemented since the 1970s, have brought little hope for the reversal of Africa’s developmental malaise. The formulation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in 2001 and its adoption by the African Union (AU) as the continent’s blueprint policy document for development engendered a lot of optimism. This optimism resulted partly from the willingness of African governments to voluntarily undertake what the continent’s development partners - the G8 - perceived as ‘credible policies’ for resuscitating the ailing economies of the continent, and partly from the promise of assistance in the form of accruing ADE and IDE, debt forgiveness and access to western markets. There is a growing consensus among development experts that the provision of such opportunities would alleviate many of the structural constraints in Africa, consequently catalyzing long-term development. While NEPAD’s emphasis on promoting peace, security, democracy, and good governance is commendable, it is however argued that its propensity to gear development solely along neo-liberal lines is problematic in a continent that is grappling with the disappointments of the market-based structural adjustment programmes (SAP)

Strangers in a strange land: Citizenship and the immigration debate in Lesotho

Lesotho, a small sovereign country located within the borders of the Republic of South Africa, displays a paradox as regards immigration. It lacks the attributes of a typical receiving country, but it has been attractive to immigrants, especially from those countries in sub-Saharan Africa which are not members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Lesotho’s attraction to immigrants is explained largely by its ability to offer better remuneration for skilled workers than many non-SADC sub-Saharan African countries, and by its strategic location as an easy transit gate into South Africa, widely perceived as the ‘Europe’ of the continent. However, the influx of immigrants into Lesotho has generated a wave of anti-foreigner feelings among sections of the population and heightened the debate about the relevance of foreigners to national development. The paper reiterates the principal conventional arguments against immi- gration: that it compromises jobs, raises crime rates, intensifies the spread of diseases, undermines the homogeneity of the state and nation and exerts additional strain on the country’s already overstretched resources. Demonstrating the limits of these arguments, the paper argues that for Lesotho, grappling with unemployment and manpower shortages, immigration is an asset rather than a liability because it creates jobs, brings in skills that are otherwise in short supply and raises the country’s international profile and competitiveness

Military intervention in Africa’s conflicts as a route to peace: Strengths and pitfalls

This study seeks to answer a basic question: what are the merits and flaws of military intervention as a tool of conflict management in Africa? It uses a qualitative research approach and draws on existing literature on conflicts and military intervention in Africa. The study argues that military intervention and peacekeeping operations (PKOs) have become the most common approaches to conflict management in Africa. While these approaches have been effective in mitigating, or at least managing, most of the continent’s conflicts, they are not without lapses. In addition to human and financial costs, dubious intentions of interventions, and damning recent revelations of misdemeanour of peacekeepers, an additional troubling lapse of interventions and PKOs is their inability to address the fundamental causes of conflicts. Consequently, intervention-induced peace in most post-conflicts states remains tenuous, leaving them susceptible to relapse into conflict with the exit of peacekeepers. The article suggests that addressing the root causes is a better and a more sustainable way of mitigating conflicts and promoting peace in Africa

Policing and Preventing Human Rights Abuses in Africa: The OAU, the AU & the NEPAD Peer Review

In spite of being signatories to the United Nations Charter and the African Charter on Rights, human rights abuses are rife in African countries. The democratic wave that swept across Africa in the early 1990s and witnessed the demise of many authoritarian regimes only minimised the practice of human rights violations; it did not abate it. There are still reports of opposition activists being jailed without trial for daring to seek level playing fields in politics; journalists being detained or sometimes forced into exile for daring to expose corruption in high places; academics being threatened with arrests for daring to write about mis-governance; workers being dismissed for attempting to unionise or to ask for better remuneration in the face of currency devaluations and inflation. There are countless instances of gross human right abuses, which cannot be recounted here because of time constraints. In some instances, the state has completely failed to promote peace, welfare and private property. Perhaps it is appropriate to describe these states as "failed states." They are failed states because in spite of maintaining law and order, they are unable to perform their traditional functions, including the protection of human rights

Environmental Degradation and Human Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa

The damaging effects of environmental degradation on human security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have received far less attention than they deserve. Environmental decay reflected in deforestation, climate change, the loss of biodiversity and pollution is on the increase and impacts negatively on the fragile human security condition in SSA. Human insecurity, conceived of as threats to human life, is dramatised in economic insecurity, food shortages and malnutrition, violent conflicts, health insecurity, personal insecurity as well as in environmental decay. While these disconcerting developments persist, even escalating, SSA states have remained passive observers to the drama. Governments in the region have only paid lip service to environmental conservation. Although environmental regimes are established these have had little impact on environmental conservation. This stems from a number of factors including the tendency to classify environmental issues as “low politics”. Consequently, states consider themselves under little, if any, obligation to pay attention to environment conservation. The result has been continuous degradation of the environment and the inevitable heightening of human insecurity in SSA