This policy brief considers the key governance and security challenges facing Southern Africa, with a focus on the 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) sub-region’s progress towards democracy, and its peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace building efforts – particularly in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Madagascar. Inspired by the concept of conflict resolution developed by the first African United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in his 1992 report, An Agenda for Peace, this policy brief argues that appropriate early action can help to prevent the escalation of disputes into open conflict, and in the case of fragile, war-affected countries, a relapse into renewed violence. In his report, Boutros-Ghali put forward a comprehensive view of conflict resolution, envisaging it as a continuum of preventive diplomacy; peacemaking; peacekeeping; and post-conflict peace building. Not only must the root causes of conflicts be tackled through addressing governance challenges, but effective peacemaking and peacekeeping mechanisms must also be developed, as well
as a comprehensive strategy for post-conflict peace building.
