and in Sudan, some of the peacebuilding Committees are run by internally displaced
women.218
Integrating
police representatives into the South African
peace
committees added a layer of security to this model.219
Studies on the impact of the LPC model validate its ability to mitigate violence,
sometimes even in the middle of violent conflict220 In Ghana, the national peace
architecture of LPCs and the traditional mediation mechanisms were associated with
peaceful elections transitions in December 2008.221 Observers note that in the 2008
election related violence Kenya, district peace committees were key in checking
violence in the Northern and Coast provinces.222
e) Elections and managing diversity
Agenda 2063 points to the critical need to manage Africa’s diversity as a source of
wealth, harmony and social and economic transformation rather than of conflict. The
APRM since 2006 has been addressing the management of diversity as a special or
cross cutting theme. Within 2 years of the APRM country reviews commencing,
managing diversity was identified as a cross cutting issue in 4 out of 5 countries that
had been reviewed.223 In 2008, Africa’s leaders considered the concept of managing
diversity as fundamental nation building 224 APRM emphasis on gender equality and
gender mainstreaming takes into account the differing experiential perspectives of
men and women and the heterogeneity of women.
The prevalent model where election winners take all has bred discontent particularly
along ethnic lines and is a potential trigger for conflict as has been evidenced on the
continent. The APRM examines countries’ capacities to administer elections in a
218
Kezie-Nwoha H and Were J ‘Women’s informal peace efforts: Grassroots activism in South Sudan’ Number
7 CMI Brief November 2018
219
Peace
Infrastructures.org
‘
Infrastructure
for
Peace’
.
Available
at
https://peaceinfrastructures.org/SitePages/home.aspx
220
Issifu A K ‘Local Peace Committees in Africa: The Unseen Role in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.9, no.1, March 2016
221
UNDP
Kenya
‘District
Peace
Committees’.
Available
at
https://www.ke.undp.org/content/kenya/en/home/operations/projects/peacebuilding/districtpeace.html
222
UNDP Kenya ‘District Peace Committees’
https://www.ke.undp.org/content/kenya/en/home/operations/projects/peacebuilding/districtpeace.html
223
Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Algeria and South Africa
224
Africa Peer Review Mechanism ‘Emerging governance issues in Africa: Perspectives from the APRM process,
November 15, 2008, 11th meeting of the Africa Partnership Forum (APF), Thematic Paper, 17-18 2008
77