ECOWAS and Civil Society Movements in West Africa

This article argues that the West African subregion has radically shifted its approach to security from a state?centred framework to one that now encompasses human security concerns. Civil society is now an active part of the regional security decision?making processes. While it has been difficult to transform local?level civil society engagement into a large?scale regional involvement, civil society engagement with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has nonetheless become more focused and effective. This article explains this transformation in the regional security agenda and ECOWAS?civil society collaboration, contending that the institutionalisation of the latter has had a mutually beneficial impact. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges that lie ahead for this relationship and the process of movement building

Bringing Gender Dimensions Back from Obscurity: Governance, Peace and Security in Africa

This policy paper discusses this disconnect between policy, scholarship and activism and the reality on the ground; and its underlying causes. It makes proposals for relocating gender considerations in mainstream governance, peace and security discourse and practice. Ultimately, the hope is that this might begin to bring a systematic shift in the way all parties address gender issues. As such, this paper brings several interrelated issues into focus: The relationship between governance, peace and security. The value of examining processes through which state and society forge a common understanding around the protection of their citizens - and the place of gender in this. A key question is: why does gender inequality remain relegated to the background while other issues occupy the foreground of national conversation? The opportunities peace and security processes provide for reform of security governance in favour of excluded citizens, particularly women, who are often at the receiving end of gender inequality. The paper highlights the role of policy frameworks such as UN Security Council Resolution 1325.The constituency of actors who can help elevate the gender equality agenda as articulated in Resolution 1325 in the policy and decision making arena. Despite efforts, the failure to achieve transformation in society and change for women towardgender equality

Twenty Years of UNSC Resolution 1325 call for a Frank Forward Look

Since the United Nations (UN) adopted UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in 2000 there have been significant shifts in discourse and practice on gender, peace and security. Twenty years later, conscious of the original limitations that shaped UNSCR 1325 in the first place, we must account for these shifts whilst striving to do much more than simply sustain the agenda

Methane generation potential of municipal solid waste in Ibadan

Energy potential from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) of two landfills serving four local government areas in Ibadan metropolis was estimated in this study. The characterization of the MSW showed that approximately 74% is made up of organic materials with food wastes constituting the highest portion (35%). The energy content of the waste is evaluated as 13,022KJ/kg. The methane potential of the MSW between 2012 and 2020 is estimated to be 27, 517 tonnes using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology. The gas when collected can be used as alternative energy source for small and medium enterprises in the locality.Keywords: Methane emission, Municipal Solid Waste, Landfills, Energy content, Alternative Energ

Re-conceptualising leadership for effective peacemaking and human security in Africa

This article explores the meaning of peace and human security from the perspective of the individual — the presumed referent point of security — and examines responses to armed conflict, a leading source of insecurity for African peoples. It identifies inherent flaws in approaches to conflict in Africa and looks to a different field — that of leadership — for a more effective formula for peacemaking. In the absence of a framework that can effectively end the cycle of conflict relapse in Africa, the paper argues that an alternative framing of leadership is needed; and that alternative leadership approaches to dealing with conflict and insecurity offer a chance for stable peace and human security. It suggests that an expanded perspective on leadership provides a basis for exploring interventions that can potentially alter peacemaking discourses as well as the terrain in which peacemaking takes place. The article therefore asks what a focus on the individual as the referent point of security means if and when viewed from the perspective of a collection of individuals. In this regard, it presents emerging perspectives from a study of young Africans on leadership programmes in a classroom setting and attempts to extrapolate them to wider societal settings. It then explores how a different perspective of leadership might serve as a facilitator of peace and human security in Africa, drawing examples from past and on-going situations of armed conflict in Africa.http://www.up.ac.za/en/political-sciences/article/19718/strategic-review-for-southern-africaam2016Political Science

Is your article EV-TRACKed?

The EV-TRACK knowledgebase is developed to cope with the need for transparency and rigour to increase reproducibility and facilitate standardization of extracellular vesicle (EV) research. The knowledgebase includes a checklist for authors and editors intended to improve the transparency of methodological aspects of EV experiments, allows queries and meta-analysis of EV experiments and keeps track of the current state of the art. Widespread implementation by the EV research community is key to its success

Crises of war-to-peace transition and civil war recurrences : a focus on leadership building and the postcolonial state in Africa

This paper focuses on process-based leadership as an entry point for discussion of war-to-peace transitions. Process-based approaches to leadership reside in the interactions between leaders and followers. Too great an expectation is often placed on individual leaders to effect transformation: armed conflict is likely to re-ignite in more than 40 per cent of conflict situations where peace was previously negotiated. In dealing with conflict relapse, few alternatives exist in academic and policy literature to dominant approaches to peacebuilding. The starting point for war-to-peace transition is a return to the state building conversations that preceded armed conflict in the affected society

Social worldviews and social attitudes: Examining the psychological correlates for other-concern

Social inequality or inequity is existent in every society. As such, most societies dedicate efforts to ensuring fairness and justice for all its members. The university environment constitutes a miniature society on its own and everyday broader realities of the larger society are equally applicable within the university.  The attitude that students hold with regards to social inequality could be a function of their worldviews which act as guiding principles for social conduct. In this study, the worldviews of self-transcendence and just-world beliefs were examined in relation to support for affirmative action and social dominance orientation among students. The study employed a survey approach with data collected through questionnaires from a sample of 331 (62.8% female) undergraduate students in a public university. The authors hypothesized that self-transcendence and just-world beliefs would be positively associated with support for affirmative action and negatively with social dominance orientation. Result of data analysis using structural equation modelling confirmed the hypotheses in this study. However, the relationship between just-world beliefs and social dominance orientation was not significant. Results were discussed for their implications for acceptance of social policies that try to bridge the gap between dominant and marginalised groups. The implication of findings for understanding and managing interaction between groups in an educational setting were emphasised. Recommendations were made regarding how policy makers can use knowledge of worldviews held by student in designing strategies geared towards acceptance of policies targeted at ensuring positive outcomes for members of disadvantaged groups. Suggestions for future research were given

Making a case for reframing narratives of peacebuilding in Africa

This paper examines two main types of violent and armed conflict settings. The first consists of situations of armed conflict where violence ended on the battlefield, such as in Ethiopia and Rwanda. The second includes situations where the end of violence and the post-conflict agenda were negotiated and facilitated either internally or by external interveners such as the United Nations or regional organisations, such as in the case of South Sudan. The study focuses on forms of peace settlement that are able to return to the nation and state building conversations that lie at the root of the conflicts

Testing the contact hypothesis: Examining the moderating roles of socio-political attitudes in xenophobia

Intergroup contact is proposed as one of the means of increasing tolerance and appreciation of diversity in multi-group settings. The main aim of the present study was to examine how intergroup contact affects xenophobic attitudes and what variables can help to understand the strength of this relationship. The sample consisted of 1050 men and women of an average age of 23.33 from different ethnic groups in Nigeria. Hypotheses were tested with structural equation modelling. The results of the data analysis revealed that people with greater intergroup contact had lesser xenophobic attitudes towards outgroups.  Furthermore, a social dominance orientation affected the relationship between intergroup contact and xenophobic attitudes by reducing the strength of the relationship between the two variables. Equally, for people who strongly identify with their ethnic groups, intergroup contact had lesser effect on their xenophobic attitudes. In addition, stronger identification with ethnic group also helped in reducing an aversion to social relations with outgroups. The results of this study were discussed under the socio-cultural context of the Nigerian society that drives ethnic rivalry and ethnic survival consciousness. The implications of the findings for improving relations between ethnic groups in Nigeria were highlighted. Suggestions for future research were provided