From the Sustainable Development Goal 16 to the African Union Silencing the Guns Agenda: Why Is It So Difficult to Achieve Sustainable Peace and Stability in Africa?
Publisher: Africa's Engagement with the Responsibility to Protect in the 21st Century
Author(s): Patrick Ateah Yeboah and John Peter Okoro
Date: 2024
Topics: Conflict Causes, Governance, Renewable Resources
The quest for sustainable peace in Africa has occupied the centre stage of numerous initiatives, policies, and frameworks for regional and international actors. Despite these efforts, the continent remains enmeshed in a vicious circle of obstinate conflicts, which has led to the death of millions of the civilian population and slowed down development. This paper interrogates the intricacies of violence in Africa and the continent’s efforts towards actualizing Agenda 16 of the SDG (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and, by extension, the Silencing the Guns Agenda. It employs a qualitative content analysis. Data were sourced from published academic articles, institutional documents, web pages, news articles, etc. that are related to violence in Africa, SDG 16, and the African Union Silencing the Guns Agenda. Regardless of the importance of these frameworks, African nations have faced bumpy experiences regarding their actualization. This problem has been made worse with the apparent depiction of the global problem of insecurity without considering the local trends, dynamics, and possible solutions to sustainability in Africa. The inability of Africans and global leaders to pay critical attention to the local dynamics that escalate insecurity, misgovernance and the absence of solid political institutions strive to ensure the actualization of SDG & AU STG remains elusive. The study concludes that there is a need to regionalize the causes of insecurity in Africa. In addressing the problem of misgovernance, the adoption of citizen-centred policies and demonstration of commitment toward ending human insecurity is needed. Also, western countries should assist Africa’s quest towards the actualization of the SDG goals and STG agenda by supporting and sustaining political institutions as a sine qua non to sustainable development and peace.