The Coherence Dilemma in Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Reconstruction Systems

This article analyses the coherence and coordination dilemma in peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction systems, with special reference to the United Nations' integrated approach concept. It argues that all peacebuilding agents are interdependent in that they cannot individually achieve the goal of the overall peacebuilding system. Pursuing coherence helps to manage the interdependencies that bind the peacebuilding system together, and coordination is the means through which individual peacebuilding agents can ensure that they are coherent with the overall strategic framework. The article is focused on two areas where the lack of coherence provides the most promise for improving peacebuilding coherence. The first is the need to generate a clearly articulated overall peacebuilding strategy. The second is the need to operationalise the principle of local ownership. The article argues that without meaningfully addressing these shortcomings peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction systems will continue to suffer from poor rates of sustainability. African Journal on Conflict Resolution Vol. 8 (3) 2008: pp. 85-11

Monitoring and evaluation of sports as a tool in HIV/AIDS awareness programmes: Experiences of five selected Non- Governmental Organisations in South Africa

Sport has increasingly been used as a vehicle for Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) awareness programmes, and the use of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has become evident in the performance assessment of sport and development as well as HIV/AIDS programmes. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of selected Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in monitoring and evaluation of their sport-based HIV/AIDS awareness programmes in South Africa. A qualitative study was carried out among employees of 5 selected NGOs that integrate sport with delivering HIV/AIDS awareness programmes in South Africa. Data were collected through a review of documents, key informant interviews (N=7) and a focus group discussion (N=7). Thematic approach following a descriptive framework was used to analyse data. The findings revealed that the selected NGOs in this study focus on similar HIV prevention messages linked to the key priorities highlighted in the current National Strategic Plan for HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis of South Africa. However, monitoring and evaluation of outcomes of the NGOs’ HIV/AIDS awareness programmes remain a challenge. Of the five selected NGOs, only one has proven to have substantial documents and reports on monitoring and evaluation outcomes. Lack of M&E functions, as well as outcomes indicators, are critical elements limiting NGOs in demonstrating the outcomes of these HIV/AIDS awareness programmes. Capacity building on M&E is required to support the NGOs in being able to reflect accurate information on their sport-based HIV/AIDS activities and improve the M&E of their programmes.DHE

Trends and tendencies in the facilitation and training of sport and development programmes for the youth: Lessons of experience from African cases.

This article provides an overview of sport and development approaches to training programmes amongst the youth, and includes preliminary results and findings obtained from surveys conducted in South Africa and Ghana by research partners of the International Scientific Network for Sport and Development. This focus is a result of an increased emphasis internationally on the value of sport for development. Consequently due to this trend, an increasing number of NGOs have been offering training in this area, yielding mixed results. This development necessitates a review of the current training curricula regarding the quality and relevance of training material. The research focused on the various themes and content of sport and development curricula and latest trends. For this purpose surveys were conducted in Ghana and South Africa in order to determine the training material and toolkits utilised in both countries to train trainers in the field of sport and development. The results from these surveys were considered against the expected results of sport and development programmes to assess possible lessons of experience from both countries. The results showed that a large number of NGOs offered such training, but that the quality of curricula as well as the standard of actual training varied tremendously, and that a need exists to develop norms and standards for sport and development training courses.DHE

Resilience and the End(s) of the Politics of Adaptation

This closing article focuses on the problematic of the politics of adaptation and suggests that resilience appears to be increasingly exhausted as a governmental or analytical framing. The article is in three sections. The first provides an overview of the problems facing adaptation today, especially where ‘top-down’ or ‘engineering’ approaches to resilience are considered to be artificial or ‘coercive’. The second section analyses alternative approaches to adaptation, from the bottom-up, often relying on the engagement of local communities, aided by the rolling out of ubiquitous computational technologies, like the Internet of Things. In closing, I suggest that resilience as a policy framework of adaptation appears to be drawing to a close as it lacks an adequate agential or transformative aspect: it is always too oriented to adapting to feedbacks and modulating around sustaining what exists

Collateral damage? Small-scale fisheries in the global fight against IUU fishing

© 2020 The Authors. Fish and Fisheries published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Concern over illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has led to a number of policy, trade and surveillance measures. While much attention has been given to the impact of IUU regulation on industrial fleets, recognition of the distinct impacts on small-scale fisheries is conspicuously lacking from the policy and research debate. In this paper, we outline three ways in which the application of IUU discourse and regulation undermines small-scale fisheries. First, the mainstream construction of “illegal,” “unreported” and “unregulated” fishing, and also the categorical use of “IUU” in an all-inclusive sense, disregards the diversity, legitimacy and sustainability of small-scale fisheries practices and their governing systems. Second, we explore how the recent trade-related measures to counter IUU fishing mask and reinforce existing inequalities between different sectors and countries, creating an unfair burden on small-scale fisheries and countries who depend on them. Third, as IUU fishing is increasingly approached as “organized crime,” there is a risk of inappropriately targeting small-scale fisheries, at times violently. Reflecting on these three trends, we propose three strategies by which a more sensitive and ultimately more equitable incorporation of small-scale fisheries can be supported in the global fight against IUU fishing

Civil-military coordination and UN peacekeeping operations

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The future of peacekeeping in Africa

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A Peacekeeping Stand-By System for SADC: Implementing the African Stand-By Force Framework in Southern Africa

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