Major flaws in conflict prevention policies towards Africa : the conceptual deficits of international actors’ approaches and how to overcome them

Current thinking on African conflicts suffers from misinterpretations oversimplification, lack of focus, lack of conceptual clarity, state-centrism and lack of vision). The paper analyses a variety of the dominant explanations of major international actors and donors, showing how these frequently do not distinguish with sufficient clarity between the ‘root causes’ of a conflict, its aggravating factors and its triggers. Specifically, a correct assessment of conflict prolonging (or sustaining) factors is of vital importance in Africa’s lingering confrontations. Broader approaches (e.g. “structural stability”) offer a better analytical framework than familiar one-dimensional explanations. Moreover, for explaining and dealing with violent conflicts a shift of attention from the nation-state towards the local and sub-regional level is needed.Aktuelle Analysen afrikanischer Gewaltkonflikte sind häufig voller Fehlinterpretationen (Mangel an Differenzierung, Genauigkeit und konzeptioneller Klarheit, Staatszentriertheit, fehlende mittelfristige Zielvorstellungen). Breitere Ansätze (z. B. das Modell der Strukturellen Stabilität) könnten die Grundlage für bessere Analyseraster und Politiken sein als eindimensionale Erklärungen. häufig differenzieren Erklärungsansätze nicht mit ausreichender Klarheit zwischen Ursachen, verschärfenden und auslösenden Faktoren. Insbesondere die richtige Einordnung konfliktverlängernder Faktoren ist in den jahrzehntelangen gewaltsamen Auseinandersetzungen in Afrika von zentraler Bedeutung. Das Diskussionspapier stellt die große Variationsbreite dominanter Erklärungsmuster der wichtigsten internationalen Geber und Akteure gegenüber und fordert einen Perspektivenwechsel zum Einbezug der lokalen und der subregionalen Ebene für die Erklärung und Bearbeitung gewaltsamer Konflikte

of Climate Change on

� � The study was coordinated by a team from UNICEF South Africa including Bjorn Gelders, Georg

Good Practices in Addressing Human Security through National Human Development Reports

A systematic and detailed review of National and Regional Human Development Reports (HDRs) on human security. It is divided in two parts: the first part examines the process of reports' conception, elaboration and dissemination, following the experience of four reports partially funded by the UN Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS) between 2009 and 2012; the analysis is complemented with a case study of the Latvian human security report published in 2003. The second part focuses on the contents of the reports, analysing a sample of sixteen Regional and National Human Development Reports, plus one non-NHDR report

Training emerging researchers in constrained contexts : conducting quality of life research with children in South Africa

The chapter aims to briefly sketch the extent of Quality of Life (QoL) research relating to children in South Africa, to introduce the shift to subjective QoL, and to propose a syllabus for training emerging researchers for conducting QoL research with children. It proceeds by elaborating on the shift toward and extent of QoL research in South Africa and introduces the QoL research with children in this context. The focus then shifts to contextualising South Africa, particularly in terms of legislation and objective indicators relating to children. The key aspect of the chapter is to propose a syllabus for teaching QoL research with children. In particular five aspects are put forward, that is: contextualising children and childhood in South Africa; children’s QOL and inequalities; theories of children’s subjective well-being (SWB); methodological considerations; and children’s rights and SWB. To this end, the goal of preparing emerging researchers in this field of study would be to continue working toward improving the lives of children across all spheres