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Abstract: This paper identifies the factors linked to cross-country differentials in growth performance in the aftermath of social conflict for 30 sub-Saharan African countries using panel data techniques. Our results show that changes in the terms of trade are the most important correlate of economic performance in post-conflict environments. This variable is typically associated with an increase in the marginal probability of positive economic performance by about 30 percent. Institutional quality emerges as the second most important factor. Foreign aid is shown to have very limited ability to explain differentials in growth performance, and other policy variables such as trade openness are not found to have a statistically significant effect. The results suggest that exogenous factors ("luck") are an important factor in post-conflict recovery. They also highlight the importance in post-conflict settings of policies to mitigate the macroeconomic impact of terms of trade volatility (including countercyclical macroeconomic policies and innovative financing instruments) and of policies to promote export diversification.
Abstract: This report, Ghana: Assessing Risks to Stability, is part of a series examining the risks of instability in 10 African countries over the next decade. The 10 papers are designed to be complementary but can also be read individually as self-standing country studies. An overview paper draws on common themes and explains the methodology underpinning the research. The project was commissioned by the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The papers in this study are not meant to offer hard and fast predictions about the future. While they sketch out some potential scenarios for the next 10 years, these efforts should be treated as thought experiments that look at how different dynamics might converge to create the conditions for instability. The intention is not to single out countries believed to be at risk of impending disaster and make judgments about how they will collapse. Few, if any, of the countries in this series are at imminent risk of breakdown. All of them have coping mechanisms that militate against conflict, and discussions of potential “worst-case scenarios” have to be viewed with this qualification in mind.
Abstract: This report provides an overview of the CSIS study series examining the risks of instability in 10 African countries over the next decade. The 10 papers are designed to be complementary but can also be read individually as self-standing country studies. The overview draws on common themes and explains the methodology underpinning the research. The project was commissioned by the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The papers in this series are not meant to offer hard and fast predictions about the future. While they sketch out some potential scenarios for the next 10 years, these efforts should be treated as thought experiments that look at how different dynamics might converge to create the conditions for instability. The intention is not to single out countries believed to be at risk of impending disaster and make judgments about how they will collapse. Few, if any, of the countries in this series are at imminent risk of breakdown. All of them have coping mechanisms that militate against conflict, and discussions of potential “worst-case scenarios” have to be viewed with this qualification in mind.
Abstract: I consider it a singular honour to have been invited today by Chatham House
to address this august forum. The Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), which I represent, is a regional organisation which has,
over the years, gained your attention only for the unfortunate reasons of state
implosion and instability caused by bad governance and marginalisation. I
therefore welcome the opportunity to throw further light on its objectives,
challenges, and achievements, which factors have effectively brought
together fifteen West African states in the enterprise of improving upon the
living standards of 230 million people as well as integrating them.
The term ‘Chatham House Rule’ is today an internationally-accepted cliché
that this Institute has contributed to international diplomacy discourse, a
reference norm in rigorous and policy-oriented exchanges on global peace
and security. I therefore view your invitation to lead today’s discourse about
‘Democracy in the context of Regional Integration in West Africa’ as an
unique honour for me personally, and a recognition of ECOWAS as a leading
brand in regional integration.
Ladies and gentlemen, the evolution of ECOWAS can only be properly
understood against the backdrop of the fascinating history and circumstances
of West Africa since establishing contact with the world beyond its borders.
The fact that slavery, colonialism, as well as racial and economic
marginalisation, had left an intrinsic yearning for freedom, unity and solidarity
among peoples of African descent everywhere defines its wish to integrate its
states and peoples.
Abstract: The international refugee regime presents repatriation as the most optimal, most feasible
of the three durable solutions. Nevertheless, the number of studies which have followed
up the process of the reintegration of returnees to their country of origin is scant. This
paper will therefore investigate the repatriation of Liberian refugees from Ghana and their
economic adjustments upon return using detailed case studies.
In early 2008, Liberian refugees in Ghana were in a state of transition from almost two
decades of relatively stable conditions to a post-refugee situation. This change was due to
refugees’ protests between February and April 2008 against the promotion of local
integration by UNHCR for the remaining Liberian refugees in Ghana. In response to a
series of demonstrations, the host government took strong actions against Liberian
refugees, including deportations and the threat of invoking the cessation clause of refugee
status.
After this turmoil, UNHCR launched a large-scale repatriation programme for the
residual Liberian refugees in Ghana. Under the repatriation pressure from the host
government and UNHCR, about 10,000 Liberian refugees repatriated to Liberia between
April 2008 and March 2009.
The results of their return were mixed. Upon their arrival in Liberia, some settled in with
relatively little stress whilst others confronted a series of daunting hardships. The process
of integration experienced by these Liberian returnees, including the construction of new
livelihoods in their country of origin, was largely influenced by their asset conditions. In
particular, their levels of access to social networks in Liberia played a principal
determinant role in their integration.
Abstract: This special research report provides an analysis of a set of new issues that have been emerging in the West African subregion and possible implications for the Security Council in the coming year(s). It identifies some key emerging threats to peace and security in the 16-state subregion and their linkages to existing security challenges. The report points to a key feature: the fact that some of the new threats are essentially criminal rather than political in nature. However, it explains also the growing political and security implications. The report also highlights action already taken by the Council to recognise these threats and considers options available to the Council to tackle these issues going forward.
The raw material for the study was derived from literature research; field research in a number of countries in the West African subregion (including Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria); and interviews in the region with diplomats, government officials and officials of relevant international intergovernmental bodies (e.g. UN Office in West Africa or UNOWA, UN Office for Drugs and Crime or UNODC, the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS and the AU), NGOs and academics.
Abstract: The interaction between host populations, refugees and the debate
around local integration forms the focus of this paper. Using Buduburam refugee
settlement and the surrounding area in Ghana as a case study – an area that has hosted
refugees for two decades – this paper explores the socio-cultural dynamics and policy
challenges that affect the process of local integration as a durable solution for Liberian
refugees in Ghana who have, in effect, had their lives put on hold: some have been in
Ghana since the conflict in Liberia started in 1990 while others arrived during a more
recent wave of conflict in 2002.
Despite a peace agreement in Liberia in 2003, many of these refugees currently
remain in Ghana reluctant to repatriate. Yet there remains a lack of clarity regarding
alternative durable solutions for this group, in particular the extent to which local
integration is a possibility. The paper therefore considers the extent to which policy,
or lack of policy, plays a clear role in either promoting or preventing local integration,
and specifically looks at the role played by the Ghana Refugee Board in this regard.
Abstract: This paper considers linkages between the spatial dimensions of poverty and war in the conflict-prone Northern areas of Ghana. More specifically, the paper focuses on the Northern Region proper. The investigation centres upon one specific conflict, the ‘Guinea Fowl War’ of 1994, which was the most violent episode in the country’s history. The work examines how this conflict relates to changes in the region’s poverty profile. It does so by paying particular attention to agricultural production, consumption poverty and infrastructure accessibility in the Northern Region under economic reforms. The paper produces a counterintuitive conclusion about the relationship between changes in poverty, interethnic inequality and warfare in this region. Many existing arguments about the relationship between remoteness, poverty and insecurity established in the conflict and spatial poverty literature are valid. However, in contradistinction to most analyses, the evidence presented here indicates that the war in question was not caused primarily by the increasing marginalisation of economic agents in the region but rather by pressures related to increasing opportunities for income generation, poverty reduction and national integration under economic reform. These gains created friction in the region’s ranked ethnic system and put local exclusionary tenure and politico-institutional arrangements under strain.
The analysis has important implications for strategies to escape from spatial poverty traps because it finds that the most effective route for escaping poverty – the participation in agriculture markets – also generates conflict. Conflict in turn generates poverty and reverses economic gains. This fact is particularly worrisome because the crop in question in this instance, the yam, is both traded and locally consumed. This crop is thus understood to be an especially valuable vehicle of pro-poor growth.
Abstract: This paper aims to appraise and map the security challenges that have faced West African countries since independence with a special focus on the period after 1990. It also assesses the efforts made by various national, regional, continental and extra-African actors and makes suggestions on how the shortcomings in these efforts could be improved. An effort is made to show the evolution of at least some of the challenges over the years, in the hope that this could contribute to a better formulation of policy responses.
The study is based on extensive review of existing literature, complemented by field research in the region undertaken in July and August 2010, in addition to general familiarity with the region from many previous research visits on related subjects.
Without neglecting other issues that could be considered as security threats, and without attempting any hierarchical ordering of these threats, the paper focuses on the following six major issues: i) armed conflict, ii) military coups and unconstitutional changes of government; iii) mismanagement of electoral processes; iv) transnational criminality, particularly drug trafficking, terrorism and maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea; v) poverty and illiteracy; vi) climate change and environmental degradation.
Abstract: Over the last decade, the international community
has been working toward a new and broader concept
of security, drawing input from a number of
governments, non-governmental organizations and
civil society groups as well as scholars and other
prominent individuals. This new concept—known
as human security—calls on states to ensure the
survival, livelihood and dignity of their inhabitants.
At the same time, it encourages e≠orts to equip
people to act more e≠ectively on their own behalf. Following the report by the Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, this booklet seeks to show practical applications of human security and give the concept a human face. Between March-June 2006, in preparation for this publication, the Human Security Unit, a freelance journalist and a team of photographers visited dozens of project sites, conducting hundreds of interviews with local staff and beneficiaries. From these many compelling initiatives, nine stories were selected that reflect the range of issues, regions and institutions involved in human security work around the globe. Human security represents a fundamentally new
way of thinking about a range of contemporary
challenges—from hunger, poverty and failing
schools to armed conflict, forced migration and
human tra≤cking. Because these issues are closely
intertwined, human security emphasizes the need
for multi-sectoral responses and collaboration
among all stakeholders. Moreover, it aims to bridge
the gaps between security, humanitarian assistance,
human rights and development aid.
Abstract: The complexity of current armed conflicts and humanitarian situations
demands multidimensional approaches to facilitate increased responses towards
alleviating suffering, and aiding those in need. Specifically, helping women and
children, who are often subjected to the vilest forms of abuse and persecution that one
can experience in modern times. This paper examines the capacity of West African police services to enhance the
recruitment, training and deployment of female police officers on PSOs. In particular,
the study seeks to critically evaluate the current organizational structures of the
Ghanaian and Nigerian Police services and their deployment of female police officers
in peace support operations. The study therefore, seeks to address two broad questions. First, how can West
African states increase the number of female police officers on peace support
operations? Secondly, how can these countries improve their respective training
procedures of female police officers to become increasingly effective on peace
support operations?
This paper prioritizes Ghana and Nigeria as empirical case studies because they
contribute a relatively high number of female police officers both towards UN and
AU operations within Africa and abroad.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss and analyse the costs, benefits and level of Ghana’s
consistency in the promotion of regional security. This will be done by taking stock of what it costs Ghana in its efforts to contribute to managing and resolving intra-state conflicts in West
Africa and also factors which motivate Ghana’s engagement in different situations.
The paper will begin by briefly tracing Ghana’s involvement in peace and security activities in
Africa, with an emphasis on its interventions in intra-state conflicts under the aegis of
ECOWAS. Here, specific focus will be on the post-1990 period when ECOWAS first intervened
in Liberia. It will then discuss the context for Ghana’s participation in ECOWAS peacekeeping
and mediation missions and the outcomes of such interventions. The human costs of these
missions will also be highlighted.
Abstract: Adequate and effective security has long been recognized as a pre-requisite for the socio-
economic development of states and societies, and thus most individuals and states engage in
various activities aimed at the achievement of security. Generally, states are responsible for
the provision of security to their citizens. In many developing countries however, state security
provision has largely been inadequate, being focused
mainly on using military, police and intelligence services for state preservation against external
aggression and internal disorder. An inordinate focus on this form of security has resulted in
the neglect of the physical and other socio-economic needs of a majority of citizens, who have
consequently resorted to 'self-help' mechanisms using the private, non-state sector to address their
security needs. The term non-state actors as used in this paper broadly refers to individuals,
groups and organizations that provide security services, but are not part of formal, statutory
institutions mandated by the state to provide security related services, such as the police or
military.
This paper is organized into five sections. The fi rst section provides a background to the
study as well as the methodology that was employed. This is followed by an overview of the
security situation in the country. The third section presents the findings on the identified non-
state security actors in the country. Section four analyses the impacts of their activities on
security in the country, and the last section concludes the paper.
Abstract: In recent years, the potential security threat posed by climate change has caught the
world’s political imagination, generating a perceptible shift in the way that a growing
number of decision-makers in the North and the South are talking about the subject.
The African Union, in a January 2007 decision, expressed grave concern about the
vulnerability of Africa’s ‘socio-economic and productive systems to climate change and
variability and to the continent’s low mitigation and response capacities’. The European
Security Strategy predicts that climate change will aggravate competition for natural
resources, and likely increase conflict and migratory movements in various regions.
Meanwhile, climate change has become a core foreign policy priority of many
governments, including the new administration’s programme in the US, a move that is
rationalised, at least in part, by the security threat it presents. This paper explores the development of
conceptualisations of environment and security that influence current discussions over
the potential impacts of climate change on security. To illustrate, we devote particular
attention to the ways in which West Africa is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,
and draw upon recent empirical evidence and climate change scenario planning research
from two West African countries: Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Abstract: By all indications, and from the evidence gathered
for this year’s Diamonds and Human
Security Annual Review, the Kimberley Process
(KP), designed to halt and prevent the return
of “conflict diamonds”, is failing. The cost of a
collapse would be disastrous for an industry
that benefits so many countries, and for the
millions of people in developing countries who
depend, directly and indirectly on it. A criminalized
diamond economy would re-emerge
and conflict diamonds could soon follow. The
problems can and must be fixed.
Accountability is the primary issue. There is no
KP central authority. The “chair” rotates annually
and has virtually no responsibility beyond a
convening function. Problems are shifted from
one “working group” to another; debates on
vital issues extend for years. “Consensus” in
the KP means that everyone must agree; a single
dissenter can block forward movement.
Nobody takes responsibility for action or inaction,
failure or success; the Kimberley Process
has no core body apart from its annual “plenary
meeting” and thus nobody is held responsible
for anything.
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme
(KPCS) has a peer review mechanism which
reviews each member’s compliance roughly
once every three years. Some reviews are thorough
and recommendations are heeded. In
many cases, however, recommendations are
ignored, and there is little or no follow-up —
this has been the case in the past with DRC
and Angola. And, as this Annual Review notes,
some reviews are completely bogus. In 2008, a
bloated, nine-member team visited Guinea, a
country beset by corruption, weak diamond
controls, and almost certain smuggling. The
team spent less than two hours outside the
capital and its report remained unfinished for
almost 11 months. A team visited Venezuela in
2008 but its makeup, agenda and itinerary
were dictated entirely by the Venezuelan government.
NGOs were barred and there were no visits to mining areas or border towns.
Zimbabwe, rife with smuggling and gross diamond-
related human rights abuse, consumed
months of ineffectual internal KP debate. In the
end, the KP agreed on a review mission, but only
after being publicly shamed into action by NGO
and media reports. The result is a lowest-common-
denominator “consensus” and continuing
inaction.
Abstract: Ghana is touted as a model of electoral peace,
having held five presidential and parliamentary
elections since its “founding elections” in 1992. Two
of these elections – the 2000 and the most recent 2008
presidential elections – have led to a turnover of power
from the incumbent party to the opposition party: from
the National Democratic Congress Party (NDC) to the
New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2000, and vice versa in 2008.
While the state is applauded for managing its conflicts
well – making Ghana a so-called haven of peace – various
individual communities are engaged in violent communal
conflicts, some of which have been escalated by electoral
politics. This article examines the politicisation or the
recharging of latent and relatively unknown conflicts
during Ghana’s 2008 elections, to challenge the electoral
peace theory in general, and the Ghana case in particular.
The conflict between two villages, Mirigu and Kandiga, in
the Upper East Region of Ghana, is examined.
The central purpose of this article is to contest
the orthodox view in the extant literature on the
relationship between elections and conflict management
and transformation in Africa; namely, that through
institutional design, elections can be an opportunity
for conflict management. This claim – henceforth, the
electoral peace paradigm – is widely accepted, not just as
the panacea for conflict transformation and peacebuilding
in post-conflict situations, but also as the test of democracy and conflict management in multi-ethnic
societies. Unsurprisingly, one of the first things on the
agenda of international peace missions in post-conflict
situations is to organise elections – for example, the
international community hurriedly organised elections
in post-conflict situations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Liberia,
Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and even Iraq. Similarly, in
“peaceful” multi-ethnic contexts, states like India, Ghana
and post-apartheid South Africa are presented as models
of electoral peace, because they hold periodic elections
and rotate power between and within parties peacefully.
Abstract: With socio-economic development a crucial priority in Africa, transitional
justice practitioners are asking whether methods of addressing past human rights
abuses can also help tackle development issues. ICTJ, in conjunction with the
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), explored this question during a
workshop on Transitional Justice and Development in Cape Town, South Africa,
from Sep. 15-19. In their discussions, the more than 20 participants concluded
that transitional justice mechanisms need to be shaped by the socio-economic
and political contexts in which human rights violations took place if the justice
measures are to be relevant to the public. Engaging development issues is an
important way to take a more holistic approach toward justice.
The workshop was the third in a series devoted to the topic. At the
previous workshops, in October 2006 and November 2007, experts examined the
theoretical connections between transitional justice and development. The most
recent seminar focused on the practical intersections between the two fields in
post-conflict societies. The workshop brought together practitioners from
government, civil society and international agencies in 11 African countries:
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda,
Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Delegates drew on their own countries' experiences to offer lessons for
others. There were talks on the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation
Commission's lessons for Kenya; the lessons of Liberian security sector and
institutional reform efforts for Kenya and Zimbabwe; and a Gender and
Development talk that focused on DRC, Zimbabwe and Sudan, as well as the
role of international aid. A special session reflected critically on South Africa's
transition. Participants also discussed the formation of a Transitional Justice and
Development Network within the broader African Transitional Justice Network.
Participants agreed that the nexus between transitional justice and development
was of continuing interest and relevance to their own work.
The presentations and discussion sessions are briefly summarized in the
main body of this report. The next section reproduces the original concept paper
that led to the workshop. It outlines in detail both the broad conceptual issues at
stake as well as specific points of possible intersection between transitional
justice and development. Following that is an overview of all of the formal
presentation and discussion sessions that happened during the week. Finally, a
brief conclusion discusses the ‘way forward.’ Appendices contain information
about the workshop schedule, and the participants, presenters and
observers.
Abstract: This paper investigates the advantages and disadvantages of NGO as opposed to track one
or official state-led peacebuilding. Drawing on empirical research into the Kumasi Peace
Process of the mid-1990s, which followed a large-scale inter-ethnic conflict in Ghana’s
Northern Region, it presents three key findings. Firstly it shows how the nature of the war,
and how it was ended, shaped the peace that was built. Secondly, it outlines in what ways
and by whom the peace process can be seen as a success, from the perspectives of its
beneficiaries and its detractors. Finally, it demonstrates how the contingent nature of
peacebuilding must be harnessed if negotiated peace processes are to leave a lasting
positive impact.
Abstract: Science is now unequivocal as to the reality of climate change. Human activities, including in
particular emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are recognized as its principle cause.
This report clearly shows that climate change is already causing widespread devastation and
suffering around the planet today. Furthermore, even if the international community is able to contain
climate change, over the next decades human society must prepare for more severe climate change
and more dangerous human impacts.
This report documents the full impact of climate change on human society worldwide today.
It covers in specific detail the most critical areas of the global impact of climate change, namely
on food, health, poverty, water, human displacement, and security. The third section of this report
highlights the massive socio-economic implications of those impacts, in particular, that worst
affected are the world’s poorest groups, who cannot be held responsible for the problem. The
final section examines how sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals are
in serious danger, the pressures this will exert on humanitarian assistance, and the great need to
integrate efforts in adapting to climate change.
Based on verified scientific information, established models, and, where needed, on the best
available estimates, this report represents the most plausible narrative of the human impact of climate
change. It reports in a comprehensive manner the adverse effects people already suffer today due
to climate change within a single volume, encompassing the full spectrum of the most important
impacts evidenced to date.
The findings of report indicate that every year climate change leaves over 300,000 people dead,
325 million people seriously affected, and economic losses of US$125 billion. 4 billion people are
vulnerable, and 500 million people are at extreme risk. These figures represent averages based on
projected trends over many years and carry a significant margin of error. The real numbers could be
lower or higher. The different figures are each explained in more detail and in context in the relevant
sections of the report. Detailed information describing how these figures have been calculated is also
included in the respective sections and in the end matter of the report.
Abstract: The Center for International Cooperation’s Security Sector Reform project, funded by the Royal Government of Norway, undertook a comparative study of legislative oversight of security
sector reform (SSR) in West Africa during 2008.
The research examined three cases: Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Each of these countries has had a different historical trajectory, but all share a common past of authoritarian regimes that placed their own security above that of their citizens. Ghana – among the more stable countries in West Africa – has followed a path of gradual democratic reform, but contrary to its reputation as an example of successful, nationally-led demilitarization, it has not undertaken SSR systematically in either conceptual or policy terms. Indeed, despite its strides in civilian oversight generally, progress in parliamentary oversight has been limited. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, politicization of the security sector, degradation of professionalism and command and control, predation, rampant impunity, and loss of public trust contributed to – if not exacerbated – armed conflicts. In both cases, the violence was halted through military interventions by the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS) and the deployment of large-scale United Nations peace operations. Both countries
have experienced highly internationalized processes of security sector reform with the involvement of the UN, as well as the United Kingdom in Sierra Leone and the United States in Liberia. The absence of effective, democratic governance of the security
sector has been a significant causal factor in many cases of state fragility and civil war, as illustrated by the experience of numerous countries across West Africa, not least the recent coups d’état in Mauritania (August 2008) and Guinea (December
2008), and the unsuccessful attempt in Guinea-Bissau (November 2008). Security sector actors – particularly the armed forces and police – have often been an instrument for ensuring the preservation of power rather than for guaranteeing
human security.
Abstract: In early 2008 Liberian refugees in Buduburam camp in Ghana did something highly upsetting to the status quo: they held a protest requesting a larger say over the durable solution to their situation and specifically asking for greater material help in repatriation. The reaction of both the host government and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to this unexpected new voice highlights problems currently afflicting the global refugee regime.
According to the governments and international agencies who assume charge of these refugees, the civil war in Liberia is over and any refugees currently remaining in Ghana are safe to return home. They are indeed positively encouraged to do so, and yet up to 2008 (five years after the war is supposed to have ended) repatriation numbers have been lower than expected. In UNHCR's view, the lack of repatriates meant that local integration needed to be encouraged as another option for these refugees, and so this has been increasingly promoted. It must have come as a shock to the agency then when, in February 2008, several hundred Liberian women convened on a football field in Buduburam camp holding banners with slogans such as 'Integration? No! Repatriation plus $1000? Yes! Yes! Resettlement? Why not' (UNHCR had been offering $100 with repatriation). It seemed not to have occurred to UNHCR that the refugees might want repatriation, but that they would also want a say over the circumstances in which it was carried out.
Abstract: Africa’s natural resources have for many decades
been a source of power and wealth for the continent’s
ruling elites and multinational corporations,
and less often for Africans themselves.
Tragically and repeatedly, competition for control
of revenues from natural resources has fueled
cycles of corruption, conflict and poverty, forestalling
opportunities to spur economic growth
and social development.
As global mineral and petroleum resources grow
scarcer on other continents, and new African
sources come into production, resource-rich
African nations are earning rising profits from
their natural wealth. If these resources are to be
used effectively and harnessed for development,
more accountable and transparent mechanisms
must be developed and supported by governments,
multinational corporations, legislative
bodies, political parties, civic organizations and
the media.
This report is an effort to help elected political
officials – particularly those in the legislative
branch of government – serve as constructive
leaders in improving the oversight and management
of their countries’ natural resources.
Abstract: The illicit trade in rough diamonds is one of the greatest
threats facing the Kimberley Process (KP) certification
scheme. The KP was created to halt and prevent the
trade in conflict diamonds that cost so many lives
during the last two decades. At the end of the scheme’s
fifth year, the trafficking of conflict and illicit stones is
looking more like a dangerous rule than an exception.
Partnership Africa Canada and Global Witness have long
argued that the Kimberley Process should be more
proactive in monitoring infringements, and tougher in
curtailing this illicit trade. The situation today is getting
worse. In Venezuela, rampant diamond smuggling
continues while the government flouts the certification
scheme. Despite a UN embargo on Ivorian conflict
diamonds, stones are still mined in northern Côte
d’Ivoire, smuggled into international trading centres and
sold on to consumers. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Gideon Gono recently stated that over 10,000
people were visiting the border town of Mutare every
month for illegal activities involving diamonds. Gono
said that over 2,000 local syndicates were smuggling
diamonds out of the country.
This paper reviews the issues around illicit flows of
rough diamonds, particularly in countries facing serious
challenges in controlling the artisanal mining sector.
We present the results of a survey assessing how
participant countries are enforcing KP controls and
monitoring the diamond industry, and we put forward
specific recommendations for changing the way the KP
is managed and implemented. We hope that the
procrastination and denial that have gripped the
Kimberley Process on these issues in recent years can be
replaced at the forthcoming Plenary Meeting in New Delhi
with a proactive and dedicated response to the problems.
Abstract: Just as peace is not simply the absence of war,
an end to conflict diamonds does not necessarily
mean that diamonds will create prosperity
or that human security will prevail in the
areas where they are mined. The campaign to
halt conflict diamonds has largely succeeded,
although the phenomenon continues in Côte
d’Ivoire, seemingly beyond the ingenuity and
the powers of the 75 governments represented
in the Kimberley Process (KP) and the
world’s entire diamond industry. But the KP
challenge today is not just Côte d’Ivoire; the
larger challenge is to ensure that diamonds are
controlled and tracked in ways that prevent a
return of the much more deadly diamondfuelled
wars of the past.
Diamonds are not just symbols of love, fidelity
and purity, they are the most concentrated
form of wealth on earth, and because of that,
they attract problems. A raid on a Damiani
showroom in Milan netted thieves as much as
$30 million in diamond jewellery in February.
That was just one of many diamond heists. If
you Google “diamond theft 2008” you will
find more than five million articles. It stands to
reason, therefore, that conflict diamonds could
return to countries where development is
stunted and governance weak. That is why
organizations like the Diamond Development
Initiative (DDI) are so important, and why
efforts to bring greater transparency to the
extractive sector need all the support they can
get. The intergovernmental Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative and the NGOled
Publish What You Pay Campaign are key
elements in this.
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) has been a
leader in the campaign against conflict diamonds
since 1999. It has been, and remains an
active member of all Kimberley Process meetings
and working groups. We have produced
several background studies on diamond-related
issues, 17 occasional papers and a quarterly newsletter, "Other Facets". All are available on
the PAC website (www.pacweb.org).
Starting in 2003, we began to publish standalone
Annual Reviews of the Diamond Industry
on Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo and Angola. The Annual Reviews,
published in English (all), French (DRC) and
Portuguese (Angola) aimed to provide governments,
civil society and investors with information
that would be helpful in the promotion of
greater transparency and more positive developmental
outcomes. The Annual Reviews have
been widely quoted and have become documents
of record on the diamond industries in
those countries.
For 2008 we have taken a different approach,
expanding the project to cover more countries,
but producing one report rather than three.
This report — Diamonds and Human Security
Annual Review 2008 — concentrates on the
three countries most seriously affected by diamond-
fuelled conflict – Angola, DRC and
Sierra Leone – but we have also included articles
on countries touched by those conflicts, or
where internal controls over diamonds, and
where development considerations, remain
problematic.
Abstract: Over the past decades, the way we talk about climate change has evolved. Traditionally seen as an environmental and an energy issue, climate change is now also being cast as a threat to international peace and security. Analysts argue that climate change will exacerbate existing tensions and triggers new conflicts by redrawing the maps of water availability, food security, disease prevalence, coastal boundaries and population distribution.
The security implications of climate change have become the subject of unprecedented international attention; in 2007 the focus of a Security Council debate and the Nobel Peace prize. There have been some attempts to construct scenarios of the security implications of climate change at a global scale. But the country-level security impacts of climate change have been lost in the midst of the political rhetoric. Local experts in the subject countries are rarely consulted.
In this article for the September 2008 edition of the African Security Review, published quarterly by the Institute for Security Studies, Africa’s leading human security research institution, Oli Brown and Alec Crawford draw on their fieldwork in Ghana and Burkina Faso to see to what extent the links that have been hypothesized reflect a realistic future for two different countries in West Africa as the impacts of climate change gather pace.
KEY FINDINGS:
1. Ghana and Burkina Faso already face considerable development challenges from existing economic, population and environmental stresses.
2. Climate change is not new to West Africa. West Africa in general and the Sahelian region in particular are characterized by some of the most variable climates on the planet.
3. Future climate change will likely make many current development challenges more complex and urgent.
4. There are links between climate change and security in the region. However, there is little research that has managed to construct an empirical link between climate change and conflict in the region (or, for that matter, anywhere else).
5. Climate change could exacerbate existing, latent tensions in Ghana and Burkina Faso.
6. But only in the extreme scenarios does climate change begin to present a determining factor in future economic and political instability.
KEY RECOMMENDATION:
Adaptation needs to focus on the full range of development problems affecting countries. Adaptation to climate change clearly needs to be integrated within wider plans for development assistance, and the additional costs for that adaptation need to be funded with “new money” so as not to undercut development priorities elsewhere.
